


The Captain's Dance

by happywife416



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Death, F/M, Nuka World, Post Game Events, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-15
Updated: 2017-11-14
Packaged: 2018-07-24 05:06:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 27
Words: 25,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7494990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happywife416/pseuds/happywife416
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Belle Faust is tired of the Commonwealth. The Minutemen General has taken down the Institute, the Brotherhood of Steel, and every other piece of trouble they call her in on. It cost her no small amount of blood, sweat, and tears. It even cost her heart when love was not enough for Danse to stand by her choices. Its been a year and she has traveled to Far Harbor with her son to find peace on the island.</p><p>This takes places between the final chapter and the epilogue of A Song and A Dance, but that is certainly not required reading.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest;

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title taken from the poem Song: Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

They bounced gently across the water into Far Harbor. Captain Avery caught their line at the dock with a smile. "You're late."

Belle smiled back, feeling the weight of the Commonwealth fall behind her. "Our radio crapped out. I'll have to have Kasumi look at it, damn thing is beyond me." She felt Shaun at her elbow and she wrapped an arm around his slim shoulders. "This is Shaun. Shaun, this is Captain Avery."

The woman took the boy's hand hoisting him on to the dock. "Welcome to Far Harbor, Shaun." He smiled shyly as Belle tossed their bags up behind him. "Where are you going this time, Belle?"

Just Belle here, not general, not savior, she relished the sound as she clamored on to the dock. "I don't know. I want to introduce him to everyone. I'm taking a break; my job is done for now."

Avery pondered them a moment. "Looking to stay longer then a break?" Belle nodded slowly. "Cassie gave you Dalton Farm right? It wouldn't be a bad place to set up."

She shrugged. "There is people there with their lives. We are looking for something to call ours. It's a big island."

Avery chuckled. "And DiMa would give you as many condensers as you needed. Come on and we can get you settled in town for tonight."

Belle looked to the horizon. It was midafternoon. "Actually, I think we will head out to Longfellow's tonight. I have supplies and sleeping bags stashed there in his workshop." She smiled apologetically. "We've been sharing a room with five other people for the past several months. The offer is appreciated."

"Harborfolk understand the need for space, Belle." She clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Just make sure you come back in the morning for a proper welcome."

Shaun shouldered his pack his eyes taking in the ramshackle buildings. "Do we just leave the boat?"

"It'll be safe enough. If Longfellow doesn't mind, I'll come back later for it and we will drag it up on his beach.

"Come on, I'll take you the back way." Avery took them up the stairs behind her home and then out the front gate of Far Harbor sending them on their way. The walk to Longfellow's island was peaceful. Shaun chattered happily about all the things he had seen in the small town and what he wanted a closer look at the next morning. Belle smiled at his exuberance. He hadn't been comfortable in Diamond City or during their month stay in Sanctuary. The only place he had been truly comfortable in the Commonwealth was the Castle but she was tired of it and its responsibilities.

"Look, Mom! What's this?" He dangled a crab from his fingers.

"A crab. They used to be delicious, I thought they had all turned into mirelurks. Watch out for the claws."

He eyed it warily, turning it over. "Can I keep it?"

Belle chuckled. "If you want."

Longfellow was waiting for them at the cook fire. "Saw you comin, expected you to clank more."

She grinned. "Power armor is too noisy for hunting. I left mine at the Castle for someone to polish when they miss me."

"Both suits?"

Her gaze hardened. "I left that one in a bunker almost a year ago." She shook her head. "Anyway, do you mind if we bunk over in the workshop tonight? Avery wants us to come back in to town tomorrow so Shaun can properly meet everyone." She hung her head with a chuckle. "Sorry. Shaun, this is Longfellow. Longfellow, this is my son."

Longfellow stuck out his hand and the boy took it with a grin. "David."

Belle scowled as they shook. "All the squelching around on this island and you never told me your first name."

"You weren't goin to be sleepin in my cabin then."

Her scowl turned into a rude snort. "I've slept in your bed." Shaun's eyes widened.

Longfellow laughed and headed back to the shop where she kept all her supplies. "Not while I've been in it." He called back over his shoulder. "I still haven't fixed the hole in the workshop and that storm you beat in will be a nasty one."

"Why didn't you fix it?" Belle called after him.

"You took my hammer!"

Belle stared at the ground. "I did not." Shaun giggled and sat down by the fire as she followed to the workshop. "I did not!" She flipped the light switch at the door and the dim interior stayed dark. She sighed. "I give up; oil lamps it is." Longfellow chuckled. She opened up the cabinet where she usually left the hammer and found its spot empty. She thought a moment before climbing on top of the work bench to look on top of the cabinets. "Aha!" She handed it down to him with a victorious grin. "I did not take the hammer." She hopped down. "Mind if I bring the boat up on your beach? Shaun and I can sleep in it well enough but I don't want it at the docks and smashed between those trawlers."

"Bring it up. But you and your boy are welcome in the cabin."

She shook her head. "Longfellow, I don't want to intrude."

He clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Cap'n, if you were intruding I would have told you to get the hell off my island a long time ago." She sighed, shaking her head again with a smile. “Go get that thing you call a boat. Your boy and I will meet you on the shore to drag it up.”

It didn’t take the three of them long to get the boat safely on shore and they even had Belle and Shaun’s gear stowed in the workshop before the storm hit. After a warm meal, that Longfellow declared was the best he’d had in years, Shaun hunkered down under the table and went to sleep. The pounding surf and lashing rain on the roof settled into peaceful background as Belle took a bottle of bourbon from Longfellow. She grimaced as the liquid fire burned down her throat. “How long are you staying?”

“Not too long. I want to make a run of the outliers and check on them. We may set up at Dalton’s.” She kicked off her boots as she settled against the old cabinet, staring up at the buoys. “Maybe not. There’s a lot of folks out that way now. I’m tired of lots of people.”

He nodded. “It’s just me here. You and Shaun are welcome to stay. Build your own cabin.” He tipped back his own bottle. “Stay the hell out of my hair most of the time and share a meal a couple times a week, it wouldn’t be so bad.”

She stared at him, brows raised. “Will you keep sharing the bourbon?”

“I might even share the whiskey.” He laughed.

“You have a deal then.” She took a long drink and giggled. “But I’m still not going to call you David. I have to have an adjustment period.”

“Longfellow is better then what you called me the first week.” He kicked back on his bed to stare at the ceiling. “Hey, asshole, is not how you should get someone’s attention.”

“In my defense, you were an asshole.”

Shaun mumbled from under the table. “You’re both assholes.”


	2. Home-keeping hearts are happiest,

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title taken from the poem Song: Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Longfellow was up even earlier then Belle was. He was out making rounds of the island while she was still rubbing sleep from her eyes. Shaun was snoring softly under the table still. She grabbed a couple bottles of water and the tea kettle. It took her a moment to find the coffee in the half gloom. It had been a good find when she came across the untouched warehouse. Thousands of sealed containers of coffee, just waiting for her to enjoy them. Longfellow and Nick were the only friends to appreciate the black gold. Every time she was in that section of the Commonwealth, she stopped and grabbed as many as she could carry. She dropped half at Nicky’s and the rest came out here. She would never live without it again with a can always in her pack as well. She poured steaming water into their mugs, rag wrapped tightly around her hand. She settled on the old stump beside the fire to wait for it to be ready. She slid her palms along her thighs, the fog was light this morning. It would be a good day to search for building materials. Longfellow wandered up the path as she pulled the strainer balls from the mugs. “Morning, cap’n.”

“Good morning.” She smiled brightly handing him his mug.

“It is now.” She chuckled. “Shaun ain’t an earlier riser?”

She shook her head, savoring the warmth sliding down her throat before it nestled in her stomach. “No, he’d stay up all night if I would let him or if he hasn’t worn himself out.” She stood and stretched, the t-shirt pulling up to show the smooth plane of her stomach cross hatched with scars. “I promised to introduce him to everyone in Far Harbor and then I will start building.” She sighed wistfully. “I want a cabin like yours, mind if I just measure it?”

He shrugged. “Might as well make them match. Where will you get materials?”

She stared up at the peaked roof a moment before trailing her hand along the railing. “There is a half a town’s worth of abandoned buildings. I’ll just reuse them.” She grinned at him. “Some things I will change. Like this railing, remember when I tried to leap it?”

“Those trappers still died. Of laughter.”

“Yeah, so did you.” She shook her head, her laugh light in the morning air. “I’m going to start measuring and adapting my plan and get all I can done before the kid gets up.”

 

Shaun scampered ahead of them across the rocks. Belle called after him. “Hey, watch for trappers!”

He turned quizzically back to her. “What’s a trapper?”

“Like a raider and feral ghoul combined. The Fog made them crazy and they are cannibals. They eat anything.” His nose curled.

“She once carried all that was left of one of their synth victims back to Acadia in a bag.” Longfellow added.

Belle rolled her eyes. “Just his head.”

“Ew.” Shaun cackled.

 

Belle was leaned against the old railing, flannel shirt unbuttoned and flapping. The wind whipped her voice from her almost as quickly as the syllables dropped from her smiling lips. Longfellow listened for a time before taking the final few steps. "Singing in a storm, sea witch?"

She took the coat from him, shrugging it over her shoulders, as she stared at the ground with a smile. "Singing the sailors home." She turned her smile on him then and leaned her elbows on the railing. "Family tradition, my granddad was a sailor. First the navy and then a fishing boat called the Siren's Desire. Every time there looked to be a storm and he was out, my grandma would stand at the end of their dock and sing him safely home." She turned her gaze back to the sea. "Maybe she was a sea witch. He was never caught out in a storm and his nets were always full."

He leaned against the railing beside her. "Did you spend a lot of time with them?"

She shook her head. "Granddad died before I was born. Grandma was, "she sighed. "She was hollow. She never sang after he died. My mom told me the story growing up. Over and over. It was my favorite." She chuckled quietly, fingers splayed and then twisted together. " I spent my childhood with my other grandmother who was a woman of rich earth and warm kitchens. I had never seen the sea until I came out here. It took a war and 200 years to find where my heart needed to be. The place that understood it's wildness and anger, the calm and the deep."

He stared at her, her wind tossed curls in a wild length behind her. A crooked line that ended in a button nose over full berry stained lips. The jagged scar that ran along her jaw, another on her forehead. "Another brutal beauty." She looked at him sharply and he abruptly stood moving his gaze to the sea. "Well, you should sing to it more often. I think that storm will miss us." He turned and walked back towards the cabin. "Means you can finish measurin!"

Belle turned, letting her gaze follow him as she leaned against the railing. Her lips set themselves at a crooked amused line before shaking her head. Shaun dropped from the tree with a thump and a grin. "He thinks you're pretty."

She rolled her eyes. "Enough. You said that about Preston too."

"Preston does think you're pretty. He told me so." He swung up on the railing, balancing against the top with his knees alone. "But he's too sweet for you. His own monsters worry him, adding yours would harm his soul. He wants to help people, even if it means he lets himself go."

Belle looked up at the boy, eyebrows raised. "You see an awful lot for being so young."

He grinned down at her. "It helps you’re my mom."

She chuckled. "Let's go finish planning our cabin, kiddo."

 

Dusk was falling as the radio’s quiet static turned to a crackle. “Belle Faust? Come in?”

She sighed and plopped herself in front of it before picking up. “General Belle speaking, what do you need?”

“Sorry, general, but we need your help. Turns out that hive you took out a couple weeks ago was just an advance group for a larger force.” She laid her head on the table. “I need your help for this one, Belle.”

“Alright, Preston. See you at the dock.” She turned it off with another heavy sigh.

Shaun leaned against her shoulder and whined. “We’ve been here a day.”

“I know, love.” She kissed his forehead before getting up. “But, I’m still the fucking general and until the day I’m not, I have to help them.” Longfellow watched it all quietly, one the books Belle had loaned him forgotten in his hands. She slipped on her boots before lightly poking the boy’s nose with a smile. “Look at this way. We can bring more of our stuff with us.” She turned to Longfellow with an apologetic half smile. “I have no idea when we will be back. A couple weeks? If you change your mind.” Her voice trailed into silence.

He waved her off. “Island will be here when you get back.” He called after them from the door. “Bring more coffee!” They both waved before being swallowed up by the dark.


	3. For those that wander they know not where

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title taken from the poem Song: Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Rain kept them confined to Longfellow's cabin for the better part of a week. Belle bulldozed her way through the stack of books she had brought with them, and then through the comics she had passed off to Shaun. Longfellow was teaching him how to make traps and snares and during the clearer moments, they picked off mirelurks from the porch. She glared out over his shoulder, chin digging slightly against it. Even in the damp chill, she managed to smell like summer as he remained still and didn't lean into the heat of her body. "That fucking turret is out."

"It's good practice for Shaun." He swallowed back his chuckle at her indignant snort as the boy took another shot and whooped with glee.

"I've enjoyed sleeping all night since getting back. We'll have to sleep in shifts until I get the damned thing fixed."

That time he did chuckle. "I'd slept through the night for years before you and your fancy turrets. They never got through the door."

She huffed and went back inside. "Fine, but when I'm cranky in the morning you have to deal with me."

Shaun looked down at him from the roof, head hanging over the edge and rain dripping off his hood. "She gets snarly when she's tired."

He grinned up at him. "I'll just snarl back."

He shook his head and shimmied back on to the roof. "I'll just stay up here and let you two snarl then."

"I heard that." Belle's voice floated out of the door.

The next afternoon was clear and Belle hauled the turret back up to the shop to repair it. The wood for the cabin needed to dry a bit before she started piecing it together anyhow. Longfellow and Shaun took to tossing the mirelurk carcasses back into the sea before they started smelling worse than they did.

"Your son is as bad as you are." Belle looked up from repairing the turret. "He climbed up on top of the old mart to pick off trappers."

She was silent a moment and then picked up her screwdriver, her lips quivering. "Sounds like he's smarter actually. I would have charged them." He laughed as her nose twitched. She sighed deeply and set the screwdriver back down. "Where is he?"

"Far Harbor, talking to the Mariner."

She nodded, wiping her palms on her jeans. "He's not actually my son." She held up her hand, silencing him. "It's a long story, if you want to hear it. He's not my blood but I don't care. He's the child of my heart." She folded her arms, leaning against her workbench.

He leaned against the doorframe. "He's yours, Belle. Blood be damned."

She smiled wryly, staring at the ground. "He's actually a synth."

He rubbed a hand across his face. "Start at the beginning."

"The original Shaun was kidnapped by the Institute 60 some odd years ago. They killed my husband, Nate, who was Shaun's father. He brought Shaun home when Shaun's mother died giving birth to him, thinking I would accept him as my own. I was in the process of leaving him when the bombs fell." She sighed, tapping her heel against the workbench. "By the time I escaped the vault, got into the Institute, Shaun was a man grown. He created my Shaun, a chance at a second childhood among other things." She met Longfellow's eyes finally, they burned like sunlight on the water. "And I fell in love with a little boy, who was kept locked in a room, that longed for adventure. I destroyed them so I could free him. I destroyed the Brotherhood so he could sleep safer at night. I didn't even expect him to see me as his mother. That was his choice."

"Does he know?" She nodded. "Is that why that hulking ass in the power armor didn't come with you?"

She snorted but nodded again before answering. "Part of it. I'm not ready to talk about that yet." She shrugged, a small smile playing at the corner of her lips. "I just thought you should know." She turned back to her turret and started tinkering again.

He laid a hand on her shoulder, a gentle squeeze until she looked at him. "It doesn't change anything. He's yours, and he's welcome." She nodded, ducking her head and focusing. He wandered out to head back to Far Harbor to get the boy in question. "That explains why he shoots better then you." Her laugh followed him past the cabin.

Belle had to ask him for help getting the frame up. Then she had to enlist Shaun to help as well. He was a good help when he wasn't busy laughing at jokes he told or staring at interesting clouds. They were getting the final piece of frame up, the back wall, when he looked at Longfellow with narrowed eyes. "Did you live alone out here because you liked having lots of women? Like Hancock?" Belle dropped her hammer on her foot, nails falling out of her mouth with her curses. At Longfellow's perplexed expression he continued. "Well, he likes men too. But he told me that's why he likes living in the top floor of the state house because he can have them form a line coming in and then make them leave. He's a bachelor or something. But now it's different with Mom here?"

Belle was red to her ears. "Hancock told you that?!"

Shaun shrugged and then braced his shoulder back against the wall. "He told me lots of things, because you won't and he said I should know from a credible source."

"Credible source- what kinds of things?" She spluttered out, her voice cracking and squeaking.

"What those noises were when you and Danse still liked each other. You made them with Mac once, not as many though." Shaun shrugged. "It sounds like an awful lot of work. Adults are weird. Can we finish? I promised the Mariner I would help her fish today."

Belle was almost purple before she remembered to take a deep breath. "Just go. Go terrorize someone else." Shaun took off, grabbing his rifle from the porch. When he was out of sight, she picked up her hammer again and put a nail clean through the two boards. Longfellow coughed a moment and she glared at him. "Not a word."

"Wouldn't dream of it." He grinned. "Sounds like the mercenary needs some practice in pleasing a woman though."

She huffed and stuttered. "I. He. We had different tastes." She sent another nail through before muttering. "I'm going to kill that damn ghoul." She was at the far end of the wall before she looked up at him, balancing the hammer on her hip. "And what would you know about pleasing a woman, mister out here alone on my island?"

He chuckled. "I lived alone, but you don't get lonely visiting the Last Plank unless you want to be."

She nodded. "I guess we will both have to learn how to be discreet then." She grinned at his expression. "You aren't the only one that goes to the Last Plank. But if it makes you sleep easier, I'll keep my conquests in the Commonwealth." She winked and went back to hammering.

The cabin was half sided and the front porch finished before Preston called on her again. This time a patrol had gone missing. She was loading up her pack on the table. "Shaun can stay with me this time."

"Are you sure?" She tossed in a few mutfruit for the boat ride on top of her armor. She settled her palms against the table, the grain prickling against her skin. It needed to be sanded, she added it to her list of things to do.

He cut her off. "This old hunter can teach him a few tricks without his mother hovering over his shoulder. And he knows you're stopping in Diamond City."

She nodded. "It'll be for the best he stays then." She grinned. "I'll be bringing back a friend this time. I think you'll like him."

Shaun wandered in the door and heaved a loud sigh. “We’re leaving again? Can’t I stay with David?”

Belle chuckled. “Yes, you can. Mind him, kiddo.” He whooped with glee.

"He gives me no trouble and we have things to do. Someone needs to teach him how to shoot better than his mother. You'd spend less time cleaning your guns if you didn't put the muzzle on your target."

Belle rolled her eyes. "I waste less ammo that way." She tousled the boy's hair and kissed his forehead with a well wish until she returned.

He hugged her hard. "Maybe he can teach you to shoot when you get back."

She chuckled. "Maybe. I would rather finish our place first before we wear out our welcome." She grabbed her pack and a trusty shotgun with a backwards glance. Longfellow had his hands on the boy's shoulders both of them wearing smiles and she jerked her face forward, fighting her galloping heart into submission.

 

Belle was gone a month, a long exhausting month. She had found what was left of their missing patrol, in several pieces and identifiable only by the remnants of their uniforms and weapons. She scratched behind Dogmeat's ears. "I know someone who will be happy to see you, boy." He whined, thumping his tail on the boat deck as she slowed to beach it. She chuckled. "I bet you missed him too."

Longfellow waved her in, catching the boat's front end as she jumped out and helped him drag it up on the shore. "It's good thing you have this little dinghy."

"You leave my dinghy alone." She huffed, bracing her feet in the sand to haul it clear of the water.

"Dogmeat!" Shaun yelled as the beast cleared the side and knocked him to the ground, covering him in slobbery kisses.

Belle smiled fondly down at them. "Your friend, cap'n?"

She leaned her shoulder against him. "A girl's best. Claire and Piper were sad to see him go, but he didn't have enough space in Diamond City to run. Besides, his boy was here. I'll feel better about Shaun wandering around like a feral as long as Dogmeat is with him."

The boy sat up. "Mom, I know what I'm doing."

"So did I at your age, and you know what happened?" She leaned down, hip brushing against Longfellow's hand that he retracted like he touched fire. "I was grounded." She ruffled the boy's hair with a grin. "Take the dog and."

"Don't go far. I know, I know." He threw himself up from the ground and took off with Dogmeat on his heels.

Belle turned to Longfellow, shaking her head. "Did he even miss me? Brat."

He chuckled. "Yes, he did."

She chuckled and climbed into the boat, tossing down bags. "He just loves the dog more. It's all fine."

He grabbed several of them as she hopped down. "You should have heard him complain about the food." He shrugged. "I was complainin’ about the food eventually."

Belle snorted. "You poor things."


	4. Are full of trouble and full of care;

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title taken from the poem Song: Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Belle wiped the sweat from her brow with a laugh before tossing her supplies off the roof. The essentials of their cabin were done. It had taken them months but it was hers and Shaun's, far from the Commonwealth and all its trouble. She took a deep breath of the salty air, enjoying the warm sun on her skin. Shaun had gone up to Far Harbor with Dogmeat that morning to play with the other children and to let her work in peace. "Cap'n?"

She smiled down at Longfellow. "Yes?"

"Roofs are not made for standin."

She chuckled. "Someone moved my ladder." She sat on the lowest edge, kicking her feet. "I can't believe it's done. I've never had anything that's just mine before, Red Rocket turned into a rest stop for the Minutemen and caravans." She smiled down at him. "Thank you for all the help, and the spot on your island."

"There's room enough." He answered gruffly. Her smile widened as she let her hair fall around her face. She slid off the roof, turning to hang by fingertips and eyeing the ground. Just as she was bracing to drop the last few feet she felt his hands on her hips. "I've got you."

She held a second longer before the quiet, gentle strength in his hands floated her to the ground. His hands lingered a second longer than necessary on her waist and she chewed her lip. "Thanks." She laughed softly. "I'll have to keep that in mind inside or I'll be calling you to get things off of the shelves when Shaun isn't home to climb them."

"What are you going to do on the inside?" She gathered her tools and dumped them into the toolbox to carry. He followed her in.

She stood in the middle of the cabin, slowly turning it over in her mind. "A loft area for Shaun to sleep in with a desk and his own bookcase, with a ladder to reach it." She smiled pointing to the large window, that he had complained about when she put it in. "My desk is going there so I can watch the water while I work and the garden when I get it put in next spring. Bookshelves on both sides of the door."

"How many bookshelves do you need?"

"Ah. Four." She grinned at his shocked look. "I worked at the Boston Public Library as an archivist before the war. I have salvaged every book I could find. And now I'm writing my own. No one else may ever care about what I remember from before or everything I've done the past couple of years but I will when I have a few more grey hairs." She spun the circle again to stare at the space for the loft. "I think I can knock that out today."

She hammered in the last nail as night fell. Shaun whooped with delight as he ran to gather their sleeping bags. Longfellow handed her a bowl of dinner that she set into with an appreciative growl. She chuckled as the boy wrestled the bags across the damp earth and in the door. "It's like he's tired of sleeping under your table."

Longfellow shrugged, the fire casting light and shadows on his face. “Everyone needs their own space. And you snore.”

Belle froze with the spoon halfway to her open mouth, eyes wide. “I do no such thing.”

Belle always relished her weekly radio calls with Piper. It was probably a frivolous use of Minutemen resources but no one was going to tell her otherwise, not when it was all her hard work and scavenging that meant the boosted signals reached every corner of the Commonwealth and enabled everyone's back and forth communication. Piper kept her updated on the Commonwealth, on things Preston would have never thought about; silly things about their friends and town gossip. Piper was the first stop for all of Belle's correspondence and half the time she opened them. "You've got letters from Mac and Deacon, Blue. Want me to read them? Maybe the wayward mercenary is pining for you."

Belle rolled her eyes. "Hardly, Piper. Just send them out this way. How's Claire?"

"I'm fine."

"Still mad then."

"You still ran away to some remote island." Belle sighed, rubbing her forehead. "How's Shaun doing in the sticks?"

"Good, he's made some friends out here. He'll be disappointed when I get the inside of the cabin finished and he will have to use a ladder to get to his loft instead of climbing the walls like a spider."

"He's the child you deserve."

The radio crackled. "Sorry, Blue. You know how she is."

"Trust me, Piper, I feel sorrier for you. You have to live with that." Her laughter echoed across the miles, cracking a smile across Belle's face. "Shaun wants to come visit for a couple weeks while I finish building. Would you mind?"

"You think I'll turn down time with my favorite nephew? When will you get here?"

Belle chuckled. "How about Friday? Preston will insist we take an escort, so we will move fast to escape them. I'll stay the weekend before heading back."

"Can't wait. Love you, Blue."

"Love you too." She turned off the radio with a smile. True night had fallen and Shaun and Dogmeat were still out. The inside was taking longer than she planned, working around a kid and a dog, sometimes a man, made it a little slow going. She was boarding the inside, good old shiplap, providing extra insulation against the wind and sea. Once they were all up, she was going to whitewash them and add some trim. She twirled a pencil in her fingers, a smile on her lips, red trim if she could manage. She pushed herself to her feet and wandered out to Longfellow's cabin. He was leaned against his railing. "Seen my boy?"

He pointed down to the beach. She pulled herself up on the railing, a hand braced on his shoulder and she could see Shaun and Dogmeat playing fetch along the surf. She scooted her butt on to the railing and swung her bare feet. "I'm taking him up to Piper's for a couple weeks. He misses her and Claire. And Nat. I'm sending Dogmeat with him."

"You worryin?" She nodded. "Send his rifle too. He knows how to use it."

A soft snort left her and she leaned her head on his shoulder. "He made it, God knows how long without me. A couple weeks with his aunts, with Nick right up the street, is nothing. But I worry. Diamond City, the Great Green Jewel of the Commonwealth, is a den of depravity and a shithole. I wish they lived in Goodneighbor, at least that's an honest shithole. And I trust Hancock as mayor a hell of a lot more than those fancy idiots they have." She sat up and grinned at him, a gleam in her eye. "We'll have the whole island to ourselves again, I imagine we could find something to do. If you want."

He stood, putting his hands in his pockets. "I'm an old man, Belle."

She rolled her eyes and swung her legs over the railing, stalking towards him. He didn't back away as she pressed herself close to him, lost himself in her stormy eyes. "I'm 240, but nice try." She settled down on her heels, panic darting across her confident smile. "Unless I've been wrong, which is a good possibility and then I've made this very."

He caught her face in his hands and silenced her with his lips. They were rough against her smooth ones but she didn't shy away from him, not like the others had after Hannah. She slid her fingers through his beard, nails scraping against an old scar before wrapping around the back of his neck pulling him closer. She was so tiny as he settled his hands against her waist, his neck creaking as he leaned down.

Belle had two thoughts in her mind, finally and that his beard tickled. A lot. She moved slowly, both out of trying not to giggle and trepidation. He tasted like salt and whiskey, but not burning. It was a warmth, like home and baking bread. She melted, feeling safe as his hands on her waist again, anchors as her heart took flight.

Footsteps pounded up the steps and came skidding to a halt followed by doggy panting. "Finally! I thought I was going to have to bang your heads together."

Belle fell back on her heels, but leaned in against his chest, their smiles wide. "Brat." He grinned. "It's time for bed, we head out tomorrow for Piper's." Boy and dog took off for the other cabin. She stepped out of his arms, her smile dazzling. "Not bad for two old people."

"We have a lot to discuss." She nodded. "And you're runnin off."

She shrugged and hopped his railing. "Gives you time to decide what you want. If I've learned anything, people need time to decide when it comes to me." She turned back. "Goodnight, David."

"Goodnight, cap'n." He whistled on the way into his cabin.

Shaun met her at the door, grinning. "Moooom."

She laughed, rolling her eyes. "Stop. It."

He pulled her into a hug. "I want you to be happy. You've been happy since we came here. And he makes you glow when you look at him." Belle tousled his hair, thumb scraping against his cheek. "He's your friend and walks beside you. He understands your monsters."

"How'd you get so smart?" She kissed his forehead, her voice soft. "Don't count your chickens before they hatch, love. We could just be friends, like Mac and I. A friend like David is something to be cherished too." She wandered over to the trunk she kept her things in and pulled out her pack and a spare set of clothes.

Shaun stayed by the door. "But what about love, Mom? Isn't that important? Like what you and Danse had for a while? Or Nate?"

She sighed, leaning heavily against the lid. "Nate is a story for when you are much older. Danse." She turned and sat on the trunk. "I thought Danse, you, and me could be a family. That we would be my happily ever after. That he could accept what he was, that he could accept that I could make decisions without him holding my hand." Her voice caught. "That to destroy monsters you must become monstrous. I loved him for a time, but love isn't always enough when people have to make decisions that are tough."

"The Prydwen."

She nodded. "Some before that even." She took a deep breath. "He thought the Minutemen were a joke. He wasn't fond of my friends or some of my habits. When we fought, it was loud and brutal. He didn't want me freeing the synths from the Institute."

"But he was one!" Shaun's shock quickly turned to hurt. "That's why he didn't like me."

Belle opened her arms and he settled against her heart. "I will always choose you, Shaun. You are the child of my heart. That's why it was easy for me to make my choice, and why I could walk away without looking back when he left. If love wasn't enough for him, it was enough for the two of us."

"Is that why you hunted him down?"

She smiled against his hair. "You make it sound like I killed him."

He looked up at her, eyebrows high. "Did you?"

She laughed, sharp and short. "No. I yelled and told him we were leaving the Commonwealth. That he didn't have to hide in the bunker that I refused to kill him in before and he was welcome in my settlements like anyone else. I just wanted the final word for my hurt feelings. I might be a monster but I'm not that bad." Shaun giggled. "Pack your bag so we can leave early, kiddo."

She spent the journey back to Far Harbor with her heart in two different directions. One wanted to go back to Diamond City and whisk Shaun back home. She smiled at the thought as she drug the boat up on the beach. The other part was firmly occupied with here. She hopped back into the boat and dropped the trunk off the side into the sand. It was heavy but she grabbed a handle and started to drag it. It contained a few treasures wrapped in old clothes, more books, and the last few building materials.

The island was quiet and the fluttering note on her cabin door told her why. "Back soon, who's the one running away now?" She dragged the trunk in under the window and tossed her pack on to her sleeping bag. She took a look around and sighed. "Might as well get to work then."

She finished the shiplap and got both beds built. Simple wooden frames with grass stuffed mattresses, they weren't the old world beds by any means but they were pretty comfy once they settled. Shaun had helped build his own desk before he left and his bed fit nicely by the wall in his loft. There was just enough room to add a bookcase between them. She swung down the ladder as the sun was setting. "Well then, what's next, cap'n?"

She stumbled at the bottom rung and fell into a cursing heap. "Fucking, David Longfellow! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

He laughed as she continued to seethe. "You should pay more attention."

She swung her hammer between them. "Everything else on this fucking island makes noise, asshole."

He continued to chuckle as she got up from the floor and tossed her hammer into her toolbox. "How was the Commonwealth?"

"Ugh. But I stopped at Finch Farm and they are going to set us up for the winter. They've had a good crop this year." She turned to him with a grin. "But I did bring a whole trunk of stuff home."

"How many trunks do you have?"

She leaned against it as she thought. "I have four left at Piper's. Everything I had at Red Rocket went there, that I wanted anyway. Today's had some building materials in it and came from the Castle." She shrugged. "Some of its Shaun's."

"Blame the boy while he isn't here to defend himself."

She laughed, her blue eyes dancing. "As for what's next, I need a desk still and bookcases. Tomorrow."

"I'd say it's time for a drink."

She hummed. "You buyin?"

"Whiskey's on the table in my cabin."

She kicked off her boots and left them by her bed. "You get the whiskey and I'll get us something to eat. We'll eat on my porch for once."

They passed the bottle back and forth as the stars twinkled overhead. Belle leaned against the post, hair wild about her as she stared up at the sky and her arms folded against her bent knee. “You could never see them before, you know, unless you went far out into the countryside. Too many damn lights.”

He ignored the stars and stared at her, taking a long drink. “Some views don’t need the extra flash.” She let her head fall to the side with a chuckle. “I’m still too old for you.”

She sighed. “Is that your only hang up? That I look young? Because I’m going to for a while. I did some fiddling while I had access to the Institute’s labs. I wanted to be a little more indestructible, live a little longer. A side benefit is I will age slower.” She shrugged before turning her face skyward. “I watched the world burn and found it born anew. And then I burned it again trying to make it safer. I think I’ve grown into the old soul granna always said I had.” She met his eyes. “But it’s your choice. I’m not chasing anyone anymore and you’re my friend.”

It was his turn to sigh. “And what if I can’t do what you want?”

She cocked an eyebrow. “That’s what you’re worried about? All the roaming around the island you do, and the Commonwealth when I’ve dragged you along, and you are worried about that?” She pulled the bottle from his hand, kneeling beside him. “I want to take it slow, we’ve both been hurt.” She grinned. “But I am offering to break in my new bed tonight if you want to join me.” She laced her fingers with his. “We have time for everything and I’m a resourceful girl.”

He shook his head. “You’re stubborn.” She chuckled. “But I ain’t fool.” He pulled her into his arms and kissed her, hand tangling in her soft hair.

Belle woke in the night, an unfamiliar weight beside her and cool skin against her burning flesh. She froze a moment as he stirred before wrapping an arm around her waist, his beard scratching against her back. “Alright, cap’n?” His voice was sleep deep and hoarse.

She smiled, lacing her fingers through his. “I’m fine, David.” He quickly fell back into a deep sleep, his breath playing across her skin making her shiver. She whispered softly again as she snuggled back against him. “I’m fine.” The waves crashed along the shore for a time before she slipped back into dreams.


	5. To stay at home is best.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title taken from the poem Song: Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Belle woke up alone after dawn, skin itching and a restless ache in her bones. The smell of coffee hung in the summer air but it didn't lure her out. She stalked to the radio flipping it on with a huff before pulling on some clothes. She strapped on her armor and stuffed her feet into her boots before slinging her mostly empty pack on and then her shotgun and December's Child across her back. She grabbed her utility belt, loaded down with extra clips and two canteens, and clipped it across her hips. She loosely tied her bandana around her neck before pulling it up over her forehead to tame back her completely wild hair. She stormed out on to her porch and started down the path. "Hold on there, cap'n."

She growled low in her throat. "I'm just going to go explore the Oceanarium. Haven't been, and I'm too antsy to just beat shit with a hammer today."

"It'll be there after you have some breakfast." Her glare didn't let up. "And you can carry back more with two of us."

She sighed heading over to the cookfire and taking her stump and the coffee he offered. "Appealing to my pack rat tendencies is not fair."

He handed her a meat kabob. "Runnin off twice ain't in your nature either."

She chuckled around the food in her mouth and washed it down before speaking. "Fine. You get that one. But it really is just because I'm antsy today." She grinned up at him. "Besides, you're not bad company."

Belle gazed up at the old billboard with a chuckle. At David's look she shrugged. "I went to the auditions to be the Vim girl." She waved her hand up at the sign. "All these models, singers, and dancers and here I was, this quiet little librarian at the time. I made it to the final round, but everyone called me Mouse." She frowned. "I'm still not sure if it was because I was shy or because I was plain amongst all those peacocks."

"You're not plain."Belle grinned. "And all them sound like they’d scream at everything."

She chuckled again. "Oh yes."

They continued on. The fog wasn’t heavy today, just light wisps on the wind, but the island could change its mind at any moment and change their luck. “Did you want a life of adventure?”

She was quiet for so long he wasn’t sure she was going to answer. She sighed heavily. “I wanted an escape; from the city, the war, Nate, myself.” She shrugged. He let it be when she didn’t continue.

Belle felt eyes on them, a silent rage. She turned peering into the darkness of the forest, the hair on her arms standing high as an uncomfortable prickling settled across her back. Nothing looked back. She turned back to follow David’s silent form. Quick thuds behind her and then a deafening roar, she got her shotgun to her shoulder in time to fire into the yao guai’s chest but it continued to charge. She heard his shout as its giant paw descend on her, felt it rip through her flesh as she twisted away, felt it tear down her side. Cracks rent the air as he fired and Belle brought up her gun again, leveling the sights with the glassy eyes. She squeezed the trigger as she stumbled backwards. Her foot found a rock as the thing roared and she fell as more bullets rained into its side. The world spun as she watched David approach the fallen monster and fire again.

Belle was still laying on the ground, curled around her side, when he got to her. “Let me see it.” She shook her head as she unfurled, the claw marks deep and bloody even through her clothes and armor. “Cuttin this off.” She nodded, her face pale and slick beneath strands of hair. He tossed her the armor at her discarded pack, the one shoulder strap shorn in two, as he cut it off. Four gashes ran down her side, just grazing under her breast twisting down over her hip as she had tried to turn out of the beast’s grip.

Her teeth rattled together. “How bad?” He shook his head and grabbed her pack, digging for the first aid kit. He slid a needle under her arm, the pink liquid acting fast to numb her body. It didn’t numb her enough to keep her from blacking out before he finished the sixth stitch, his eyes soft as he quietly hummed.

He lost track of how many stitches it took to sew her back together. The yao gaui’s claws had missed anything vital but she had lost a lot of blood. He grabbed the alcohol in the first aid kit, some kind of concoction she made with herbs, and cleaned the wounds again before slipping the needles of two stimpacks under her skin.

The cackling of the fire woke her, the acrid smell of burning pine wafting across her face. She stretched and wished she hadn't as bandages and stitches protested. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and to a rocky cavernous sky above her. "She had a cub. I cleared out her cave since you can't walk back until morning."

Her argument settled at the back of her throat and then died as she recognized the fabric against her cheek. She sat up, letting his coat drift from her naked shoulders to settle in her lap. Her hair settled around her, salt water and sun had lightened the auburn curls giving it a fiery glow in the light. He looked away with a hard cough. "Couldn't save your shirt."

She shook her head, before getting unsteadily to her feet. She rummaged through her pack and pulled the spare flannel in Gunner green from the bottom. She slipped it gingerly on and buttoned it haphazardly as her fingers shook. It was missing the top three buttons. She chuckled softly before joining him by the fire. Belle jostled his shoulder. "Hey." He resolutely stared into the fire. She pursed her lips before tugging on his beard. "David."

"What the hell.-" She cut him off with a kiss. It was soft, nothing eager, her fingers still against his chin.

She released him, settling back on her heels with a quiet smile. "Thank you." She found a more comfortable position, let him think that she thought it was the proximity of the fire that made his ears red. "We don't have to head back in the morning, I should be okay to continue on to the Oceanarium."

"I'll knock you in the head and carry you back over my shoulder." A snarl shuddered from her chest, pulling at the stitches and making them itch, at his level voice. She shoved herself to her feet and wandered to the edge of the cave. The jagged rocks bit into her shoulder, the smell of moss mixing with fog and burning resin. "It's an ache in your bones, a restlessness that keeps you awake at night." She turned back to stare at him. "You prowl the beach when there haven’t been any storms, keep the radio on more waitin for a call that your colonel needs you. Sometimes the sea isn't harsh enough for the heat in your blood." She nodded. He tossed another stick in the fire. "We'll go, but I want you to pick off any problems from afar, not run in screamin like a trapper."

She smiled, tapping her fingers against her bicep. "December's Child it is then." She wound her way back over to her sleeping bag and pulled it over beside him and draped his coat around his shoulders. She settled cross legged on it and brushed her hair back with a disgusted snort. "What happened to my bandana?"

"Used it to start the fire."

Her sigh turned into a chuckle. "Well, I will certainly look like a feral trapper." She wiggled uncomfortably, tried leaning against the wall and hissed before leaning forward again. She answered his questioning look with a shrug. "Sitting is uncomfortable but I want to talk."

He chuckled, leaning back against the cave wall, his legs stretched parallel to the fire. "Get some rest. I'll take first watch."

She eyed him, before tucking herself over and pillowing the back of her head on his thigh with a cheeky grin. "Nope. Talking. And you won't wake me up for second watch. The moon is almost gone, there isn't a second watch."

He brushed a curl back from her face. "Smart woman. I thought you were just poutin."

She turned her head catching his fingers with her lips before imitating him. "Watch your surroundins." She stuck her tongue out at him before continuing. "I did pay attention to everything you said."

"You just chose to ignore it." He laced his fingers with hers against her ribs, feeling the soft rise and fall of her breaths. "Shaun takes it all to heart. He'll be better than me before spring. He's clever, like you."

Her eyes sparkled a moment before darkening with her frown. "Clever is good. There are other things I don't want him learning from me. Things I wish he hadn't seen." She sighed, closing her eyes a moment. "He has more compassion; he'll be a better a person then I am. That's good enough for me."

"You ain't so bad."

She chuckled. "How many large facilities have I blown up now? Three?" Her laughter subsisted. "I don't lose sleep over it. I feel like I should but I don't. It was always a choice between people I cared about and people I cared less about. Except for the Prydwen, I knew some of them. Some were even friends."

"You gave them a chance?" She nodded. "Then you did what you could." Things were quiet so long she thought he fell asleep. "Why me?"

Her eyebrow quirked up with the corner of her lips. "Why me what?"

"You could have any man in the Commonwealth, even your colonel is interested, and you want this old man who's always dreamed of a family."

The quirk turned into a soft smile. "Because my colonel hides behind me for one. And two, there is no other man like you in the Commonwealth. I've been all over it, David. There's a reason why my heart kept wanting to come back to Far Harbor after the first time I stepped foot here and I think the pull of the waves was the only reason it was willing to admit for the longest time. I had other issues to work out first. But you've been my friend through so much shit, always beside me." Her cheeks flushed a little. "If it makes you feel better it surprised me too when I realized what I was feeling, but I wouldn't trade it." She was silent a few heartbeats before grinning. "The real question is, why the hell do you put up with me when you should know better?"

He snorted. "Only a fool would turn down a lovely woman."

"Ooh." She cooed. "I like flattery, almost as much as I like a man who reads. Please continue."

"You're vain enough." He smiled at her mock pout. "You are like a light in the darkness." He tightened his fingers around hers. "The first couple weeks with you on the island, you did more good here then what the harborfolk had done in decades. That's why I offered to let you and Shaun build on my island, I could have a little of that light to myself. A family of friendship was still a family."

Her eyes were soft as she sat up and tenderly kissed him. She pulled away a moment, leaning her head against his shoulder. "It would be so easy to move too fast with you." He wrapped his arm around her, smiling when she giggled and squirmed away from his beard before looking into his eyes again. "But I rushed the last two times. I don't want to make those mistakes again."

"I don't either." He ran his thumb across her cheekbone, marveling at the flutter of dark lashes across her sun darkened skin. "We have time."

Belle lay in the tree line along the Oceanarium picking off Mirelurks as he cleared the buildings. A trapper poked his head out of the ruined wall and she splattered his brains all over the ancient siding. David waved her in. She hissed as she walked, trading December’s Child for her shotgun, and almost wishing she had agreed to go back to their island. “Ain’t much here.”

She frowned. “That’s shit. I always wanted to come here as a kid.” A thorough sweep of buildings and area revealed a couple pieces of junk she didn’t need. She held up the Jangles monkey, giving it a rough shake. “I didn’t understand this creepy fucker back then. He’s not improved with age.”

David hid his smile behind his hand, smoothing his beard. “Bring it home for Shaun.” At her arched look, he laughed. “He uses them for traps.”

She grinned and then stuffed the monkey into her pack. “That’s my boy.”


	6. Weary and homesick and distressed,

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title taken from the poem Song: Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Belle hadn't expected so much food. She had worked out a deal with Finch Farm, enough vegetables to last them the winter if they were careful. A tato or two in the stew, some corn on a warm day, nothing fancy. When she had shown up at the Castle to meet Jake Finch she had been shocked by Preston's cheeky grin and everyone yelling "Surprise!" She had enough food to feed all of Far Harbor for the winter, four steamer trunks of tatos alone. If they didn't want to go hunting, they wouldn't have to but storage was going to be a problem. Belle looked at the trunks of food on her porch and then at the two trunks of books and two full bookcases and whined sadly. She wandered over to David's cabin, trying to justify a reason as to why books were more important than food. Just inside his door she stopped. He was gone for the day with Shaun on a trip to Acadia and to hunt. She spent a night in his bed every so often but they still spent most nights apart, for Shaun's sake they told themselves. His cabin had empty space for three steamer trunks. Belle smiled to herself, wandering back to her cabin with an absentminded scratch to Dogmeat's ears and began dragging the trunks across the grass.

When David and Shaun came walking up the path at sunset, they could hear Belle singing. Shaun recognized it as an old love song from the radio. He trudged on, smacking a hand in through the window on to her desk as a hello as he went back to work on his rifle. It needed a new barrel; it had climbed out of the high spot in the tree a lot faster than he had. A laugh followed him as she sang out. "Hello, sweetheart."

David made for his cabin, shaking his head at the boy's irritation. He had tried explaining it happens, but Shaun had pointed out that if it hadn't been empty it could have discharged, hitting one of them or worse Shaun himself could have fallen. He was his mother's son. He stopped at the door to his cabin, dropping his pack and setting down his gun. Two steamer trunks lined the front wall by the door, a third was shoved at the foot of bed, and books were haphazardly piled out of the way on every flat surface. They were lined up across the tops of the cabinets and in neat piles at the cross sections of the rafters. He sighed, hanging his head with a slightly foolish smile before walking across the yard. Belle was leaned over a trunk grabbing the last of the corn and stowing it in a basket, matching the ones in the already stuffed bookshelves. The ratty, patched skirt fluttered around her knees as she sang and heaved the basket up. "Cap'n?"

She looked back at him with a dazzling smile, the shoulder of her button up falling off her shoulder exposing the bare skin and one of the tank tops she had taken to wearing on the warmer days. "You guys are home early." She turned her gaze back to the bookshelf and studied it a moment before setting the basket on top in defeat. She turned back to him, jerking a thumb behind her. "Apparently Preston put out word that the General hadn't had time to put up a garden at her new homestead. Every farm that had something to spare gave a little. And that's not even all of it, I sent some down to Murkwater. They got hit really bad and don't have anything."

"And the books?"

She chewed her lower lip, smile returning. "Well. I had to have somewhere to put the food, I had the shelves and the three book trunks fit perfectly in your cabin." Belle closed the lid on the now empty corn trunk and leaned against it. "Besides, I do most of the cooking anyway. No point in me running over to your cabin for every meal when all my pans are here."

He took the four steps towards her, boots barely making a sound on the wood and smiled down at her. He took her hands, he still didn't understand how they were still so soft with all the work she did, and so small. "You could have waited for us."

She shook her head, a mock scowl on her face. "This woman doesn't need any help, thank you so very much." She grinned. "And then you would have had time to argue."

"You love your books more then you love food. I ain't no fool to not use the excuse to have you around more." David chuckled as he caught her lips gently with his for a soft kiss. He wanted to kiss her longer, deeper until they needed to shut the door but his back protested after spending the afternoon in a tree. He straightened with a grimace.

She leaned against him, breasts smooshing against his stomach, as she rubbed his back. He hissed a moment and then felt the knot of tension release. She smiled triumphantly and leaned back on her arms. "You may be getting too old to wander around in the woods all day like a spring chicken."

He arched a brow at the turn of phrase. "The woods ain't the issue. It's the tree sittin. Shaun's found his way. He brought down a radstag and cleaned it himself."

She gave a close lipped moan. "Steak it is. I am sick of vegetables." She dropped her chin to her chest, eyelashes fluttering against her cheeks, a soft snort escaping her. "And we need to eat that mutfruit before Shaun finds it." She slid of the trunk and gave him a shove towards the door. "You barbarians go cook the meat and I'll take care of that."

David caught her around the waist and spun them around, her feet clear off the floor, before kissing her again. Her laughter tickled against his beard between parted lips. "You're the barbarian, cap'n, I ain't never run screamin into a fight."

She continued to chuckle. "And I have the axe to prove it."

Shaun's mood has brightened over dinner at the appearance of his favorite food and Belle shared some tips on what made for a great rifle barrel. He had climbed up to his loft early, an inventor's gleam shining in his eyes as he wished her a distracted good night. His desk light was still on behind the curtains they decided to hang over half the loft for some more privacy and to block the light so they wouldn't keep each other up. She gazed up at it a moment, her hand on the red on trim before softly closing the front door behind her as she stepped into the night.

The ground was never warm at night in Far Harbor, no matter how hot the sun blazed during the day. It always held a damp chill and it was beginning to make a sharp turn to cold against her bare feet as she quickly strode across the it. Belle grabbed the railing and swung herself over it and knocked gently on the frame of David’s open door. He was cleaning his gun in the soft lantern light but he looked up before her second knock fell, a smile on his face. “Missin your books, cap’n?”

She chuckled, leaning against the table beside him, her eyes dancing. “Maybe. What if I wanted some company?”

“Well, I don’t know about that.” Their laughs intertwined as she leaned down to brush her lips against his a moment before he leaned back from her. “You forgot the door.”

Belle rolled her eyes but kicked the door shut before coming back to him and straddling his lap. "You are no fun.” She kissed him again, playfulness forgotten and replaced by insistence.

“You whine about the draft.”

“I don’t whine.” She hissed as his teeth latched on to the soft skin of her throat, beard scraping against her as she melted. He pulled back from her again and she protested before seeing the smirk on his face. Her eyes narrowed as she pouted. “Fine, I whine a little. I can always get a book and leave.”

He placed a gentle kiss on her nose and her pout shifted into a soft smile. “Only if that’s what you want.”

She sighed. “I want cuddles.”

He gave her a gentle push of his lap. “To bed with you. I’ll get the light.”

She gave him another kiss, a simple one full of sweetness and quiet before tossing off her clothes into a pile by the bed. “And if I change my mind?”

“Cap’n’s orders.” David chuckled as he blew out the lantern.


	7. They wander east, they wander west,

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title taken from the poem Song: Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

"Why are we here?" Shaun whined as they entered the outskirts of Boston.

Belle chuckled. "Because we need some supplies for winter that I'm not asking the settlements for, we need to sell all this junk I can't think of a use for, and I want to see Piper before winter sets in."

"But not your sister." David adjusted his pack.

She scowled. "My sister is still being a bitch about me running away to the island, as she puts it. She can stuff a sock in it." Shaun giggled. "Don't you dare tell her I said that. We won't be able to get out of town before she’ll set our ears on fire. Older sisters are the worst, you're lucky you're an only child."

They clunked into Diamond City just as night was falling. There was a new guard working the front gate who gave her a little trouble until she jostled his memory that she was the same Minutemen general who also worked with Nick Valentine. Belle sighed, every time she came back to the Great Green Jewel of the Commonwealth she was reminded why she always left in a hurry. She knocked on the door to Publick Occurrences and Nat answered. "Aunt Belle!" She flung herself around the woman in a tight hug. "I've missed you!"

"Hey, kiddo! I've missed you too." She squeezed back. "Where's your sister?"

"Editing." Belle laughed. Nat's grin turned a little shy when she saw David. "Hi." Shaun brought up the rear. "Oh, good it's you."

Belle chewed her lip and smiled. "I'll save introductions for all at once." She nodded and drug Shaun off to stow their gear. "Piper!"

"Hold on, Blue!" There was a crash followed by cursing. "Aw, man." She popped out from her little office, cap askew. "Oh, you brought an extra." She stuck her hand out. "I'm Piper Wright."

Belle sighed, a soft chuckle escaping her as David shook her hand. "David Longfellow."

Piper raised her eyebrows. "You are not what I was expecting." She shrugged. "Blue's happy. Claire is off throwing a fit at the Dugout for the evening, you were late."

Belle threw up her hands. "We ran into some raiders. Next time I'll throw one over the Wall with a message."

Shaun piped up. "We could if we modified the artillery." The adults stared at him. "What?"

Belle shook her head. "Should I go get her?"

"Just let her be, Blue." She grabbed some bottles of water and passed them out. "Catch a seat. We have things to talk about."

They talked late into the night and water was exchanged for beer. The kids fell asleep at their feet and Claire banged in through the upstairs door, ignoring their good natured salutations. Piper was curled up in her chair, watching David and Belle. David was far from relaxed but Belle was sprawled across him like a content cat. She took a deep breath. "I don't want you to find out elsewhere as a surprise but Tin Can married Haylen last month in Sanctuary. They are living there full time now. She's running the school and he runs the defenses."

Belle froze before twirling her beer. "Good for them, I hope they are happy." She smirked. "As happy as you can be listening to Mama Murphy drone on and on and on."

Piper's eyebrows rose, and there was no reaction out of David. "You sure you're okay, Blue?"

Belle smiled, her head falling to the side. "I really am, Piper. I'm happy where I am, they can have their little paradise in Sanctuary without fearing the big bad general." She laughed. "But thank you for telling me. I'll make sure someone else deals with problems in that direction. Can you imagine if I came storming in for Minutemen work? He'd have to take orders from me directly."

Belle was nursing a hangover the next morning while David and Shaun went to sell some of their junk with Piper when Claire stormed down the stairs. She slammed the coffee pot down on the burner and threw the cabinet doors shut. Belle grimaced holding her temples. "I think you could be louder."

Claire slammed down her coffee mug, the prewar ceramic somehow withstanding the undeserved abuse. "He's too old for you."

"Really? I am actually older than he is by a couple centuries, I've never done the exact math." Belle snarled. "And how much older than Piper are you exactly?"

Claire spun, flinging the mug at Belle's head and she barely ducked it before it shattered into a thousand pieces against the wall. "I didn't run away with the old man and the sea and abandon my family again!"

Belle sat back down and hung her head. "I haven't abandoned you, Claire. I just can't stand it here." She wrapped her arms around herself, chafing her hands against her biceps. "Neither can Shaun. We are happy at Far Harbor and we weren't here."

"You didn't even try!" Claire sank into the chair across from her. "He's not even human and he's more important than I am to you."

Anger and sadness choked the words in Belle's throat as tears burned her eyes before streaking down her cheeks. "He's a child, Claire. He's my child, my son."

Her voice was soft. "I can't even do that, cry. I can't have kids. You can do it all. And you are tying yourself to an island of psychopaths and a robot and an old man, living like a hermit." Belle stood, leaving her half empty coffee cup on the table and grabbed her pack. Claire's voice turned to sing song as she sipped Belle's coffee. "He'll just die on you. He'll die so soon, Belle, and you'll be all alone again."

Her hand froze on the doorknob. "I’d rather be alone with the ghosts of love then be alone in a city full of people. Goodbye, Claire." She stepped out into the morning sun, blinking back the headache and wishing there was as simple of a way to ease her heartache.

The boys and Piper were easy enough to find, listening to Moe go on about his version of baseball. She slipped her fingers between David's with a hard swallow and leaned her head against his shoulder. Piper led Shaun over to Power Noodles for some breakfast with a mournful look and David pulled Belle into the alley. He brushed a stray curl from her face. "You alright, cap'n?" She nodded, a strangled sob leaving her throat before she threw herself into his arms. He pushed the pack from her shoulders and ran his hand down her back over and over while murmuring an old song into her ear.

A few deep, shuddering breaths and she calmed down with a nod. She stepped away from him with a grateful smile before dancing up on her tiptoes to place a gentle kiss against his lips. "I need to tell Piper we will staying at the Dugout tonight." She shook her head, her voice hardening. "I can't take anymore of Claire and it's only been a day, less than a day." She pursed her lips, peering up at him through her lashes. "How is she with Piper? I've never understood and I've never asked them. I actually don't want to know."

He chuckled and kissed her forehead. "Love is a strange thing, sweetheart."

She flushed to her ears and stammered. "We should get back to Shaun before he eats all the noodles."

They settled into their room at the Dugout. It was a little cramped with the three of them but manageable. They had all their supplies bought for the winter, Shaun was settled on the couch with a stack of new comics. Belle eyed her own pack longingly, she had found some books she didn't have, but she was meeting Piper for drinks. "Are you sure you don't want to come with me, David?"

He grunted, kicking off his boots and stretching out on the bed. "Enjoy some time with Piper." He let his eyes close with a soft chuckle. "You've been itchin to leave all day, if you let us sleep past dawn I'll be impressed."

She tossed her flannel shirt at him with a huff of laughter. His gaze slid along her curves appreciatively and she grinned leaning down to kiss him. "We only have one room."

Shaun made a disgusted protest. "I am right here."

Belle shook her head, but kept the kiss chaste. "I won't be late."

"I'll come find you if you are."

 

Piper was uncharacteristically late but Belle spent the time catching up with the Bobrov brothers and Scarlet along with several of their patrons. She finally wandered in, her lively step tired and she slumped into the stool beside Belle. She wrapped her arm around Piper. "A bottle of your best moonshine?" Vadim set down two and went to the other end of the bar to leave them in peace. "Want to tell me what's wrong, Piper?"

She took a long drink and then lit a cigarette. "Don't worry about it, Blue."

Belle scoffed and snatched the cigarette from her hand taking a long drag and blowing the smoke ring back at Piper's shocked face. "Hey, I've been up your ass about everything else. Just because she's my sister doesn't mean I'm going to stop." She grimaced. "These did not make me lightheaded 200 years ago; you can have it back." She coughed a little and handed it over.

Piper laughed. "You are getting old." Belle rolled her eyes and jostled her shoulder.

They drank for a while, talking about other things. Patrons left around them heading out into the night. Belle sighed, taking a final fortifying drink. "About Claire."

Piper fiddled with her bottle. "She's only like that with you. She's good to me and Nat." She looked at Belle, her eyes pleading. "We fight sometimes, and it can be ugly, but we do love each other, Blue."

Belle softened, squeezing her hand. "Promise? I don't want you staying with her just because she's my sister. There's places she can go. And I don't want you to suffer because she's pissed at me."

Piper squeezed back. "It's fine, I promise."

She nodded and stood and stretched. "I need to head to our room. We are going to head out in the morning." She wrapped Piper in a tight hug. "You take care; you hear me? I will come back to mother you."

Piper laughed. "Don't threaten me, Blue. I will put all your dirty secrets in the paper."

Her steely eyes flashed merrily. "Like I'm actually a Deathclaw? Oooh, or Deacon with a new face."

"He would be so flattered." She was almost to the door when she called out. "Let me know when the wedding is?"

Belle froze, caps falling from her fingers as Vadim roared with laughter. "Who said anything about a wedding?"

Piper grinned. "He may have broken your type for men, but I don't see you letting this one go, Blue."


	8. And are baffled and beaten and blown about

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title taken from the poem Song: Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

A winter storm was blowing into Far Harbor, it wasn’t the first winter had thrown at them but it was looking to be the worst yet. Belle was bundled up in as many layers as she owned beneath her ratty winter coat, hands shoved into her armpits, as she watched the ocean roll and boil. David joined her, wrapping his arms about her waist, an anchor to keep her from blowing away. “Is it listening today, sea witch?”

Her smile was easy and warm as she laced her fingers with his. “No point trying today, the water is almost black.” She leaned her head against his. “I just came out here to think.”

“About?”

“Tin Can. I had to send a patrol to Sanctuary.” She turned in his arms to stare up at him. “Am I coward for not going myself?”

“Depends on why you didn’t go. Did they need the general?”

She shook her head. “No. It’s nothing they can’t handle without me, just a pack of ferals.” She sighed and stepped away from him to pace a little. “I just don’t want to look at him.”

David let her go, back and forth down the walkway, knowing she would stop when she was ready. “We got a storm like this on the mainland a couple years ago." Belle wrapped her arms around herself again, chafing leather, fingerless gloves against the stitching of her coat before sliding her fingers against her torso. A soft smile drew across her lips as she kicked at the ancient boardwalk. "It blew up so quickly that Danse and I got caught out on the road by Walden Pond. We cleared out the old cabin there, and I got a little teary eyed staying the night in a place of history that had a hole in the damn roof." She chuckled. "The next morning, the snow just blanketed everything for miles. It's gorgeous, just like the snow we had when I was a kid. I drug him out of the cabin and he bitched the whole time as I showed him how to make snow angels and snow men. I took him down to the pond and showed him how to skate." She shook her head with a heavy sigh as she settled on her feet.

"Did he ever enjoy it?"

"Maybe." Her voice was soft. "That was Danse though. He only enjoyed little bits and pieces of things outside of the Brotherhood. We should have spent the day fortifying the roof or getting to a more secure location. He was right but I hadn't had any fun in so long. I didn't think he would mind." She shrugged. "But that night when the roof leaked he told me I could deal with it by myself since I insisted we waste the day." She met David's glare with an amused grin. "There's a reason I never intervened when you two decided to stand there and call each other names." He wrapped his arms around her and leaned his cheek against her ear. "Danse and I didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things. We were bound to break; I just didn't expect him to be a coward about it."

"This I have to hear, cap'n."

He felt the rumble in her chest against his. "He left in the night when I decided to kick Maxson's scrawny little ass for harassing my settlements. The Brotherhood had turned on him, he was a kill on sight target even. And yet when they pushed the Minutemen too far, he couldn't handle the consequences of their actions." she snorted. "And he disapproved of Shaun. I was going to give him a chance to warm up to him, give him some time to get used to him. So maybe it's best he left the way he did."

"He's lucky you didn't put him in the ground." She laughed. "I've seen what you do to trappers that get between you and your boy. The Fog is more merciful, sea witch." She turned in his arms and smiled up at him. The wind was growing colder with every gust but there was a warmth in her face he could lose himself in. He dropped a gentle kiss against her lips. "Let's go inside before he comes lookin for you."

She wrapped her fingers around his. "He'd look for you too."

 

Dogmeat whined and scratched at the door as Shaun peered out around the curtain. "It's let up, Mom. I'll take him out."

Belle grabbed the curtain and peered out too, the fat flakes were falling gently now in the afternoon light. "Alright. But don't go far!" He grinned at her as he slammed his feet into his boots and boy and dog were out the door before he had his coat completely on. Hoots of joy and barking could be heard in the house as they lost their minds racing about the yard. Belle shook her head before running her fingers along the lone shelf of books she had in her cabin. David had moved into their cabin for the winter, it was easier to heat just the one and all the food was here. She pulled an old blue tome from the shelf with a laugh. “Have you read this one?”

David looked up from cleaning his gun. “The older Longfellow?”

She shook her head before responding tartly. “If you are going to put it that way, the long dead one would be more apt.” She settled on their bed in the nest of blankets and cracked it open. Running her finger along the pages she came across memories with every page. She tapped one and started to read.

“Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest;  
Home-keeping hearts are happiest,  
For those that wander they know not where  
Are full of trouble and full of care;  
To stay at home is best.

Weary and homesick and distressed,  
They wander east, they wander west,  
And are baffled and beaten and blown about  
By the winds of the wilderness of doubt;  
To stay at home is best.

Then stay at home, my heart, and rest;  
The bird is safest in its nest;  
O'er all that flutter their wings and fly  
A hawk is hovering in the sky;  
To stay at home is best.”

Belle ran her fingers across the page. "I never understood that poem before but I do now. More and more I'd rather stay home then deal with the Commonwealth's bullshit. They never end but here." She looked up at him and smiled, the warmth of summer creeping into his bones and his heart catching. "Here is best." Her smile grew a little crooked and her eyes heavy with fondness. "I finally found a home."

Shaun stomped in the door, kicking snow off his boots and shaking it from his body as Dogmeat did the same, cutting off David's words.

Later that night, curled under the blankets and around each other, David settled his forehead against hers. “Did you really never have a home?”

She hummed a moment, settling her frigid toes against his shins. “Home as a place, yes. Home as a feeling, where love grows? This is a first.” She smiled and kissed him gently. “I love you, David Longfellow. You are home.”

His eyes shined a moment before he closed them to kiss her reverently, a prayer and a dream answered in flesh. “I love you too, Belle Faust.”


	9. By the winds of the wilderness of doubt;

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title taken from the poem Song: Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

"Winter is never going to end." Shaun sighed, half dangling from his loft. 

Belle laughed and reached up to poke his nose with her spoon as she cooked. "It's only New Year. Winter still has a few months.  You could have gone with David up to Far Harbor."

"Small Bertha is mad at me." Belle sniggered. "Laugh all you want, Mom, she's scary when she's mad."

David came in the door, shutting it quickly against the biting cold and dropping his pack. He shook the snow from his beard as he hung up his coat. He joined Belle at the stove, wrapping his arms around her and soaking up the heat. "Cold's in my bones today."

She turned her face to his and kissed his cheek. "Ah, love, you should have let me go."

"No." He kissed her hair and gave her one last squeeze before grabbing the pack and emptying it on the table. He decided to ignore her muttered comments about him being stubborn. He handed Shaun a stack of biology books the Mariner had sent along and smiled at the boy's delighted gasp. He ran his fingers over the slim red tome before tapping it against Belle's arm. "I found something for you."

She set the spoon across the top of the pot and took it reverently in her hands. A delighted laugh left her lips as she spun in place clutching it to her chest. "Do you know what this is?"

“A book of songs.” His smile was soft as he watched her joy.

“It’s even better than that.” She flipped it open. “It’s Christmas music. Some of my favorites, see here’s Silver Bells.” She flipped some pages. “And I’ll Be Home For Christmas and Let It Snow.” She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him. “Thank you, love, thank you.”

That night Shaun fell asleep listening to his mother sing songs he had never heard. Some of them were sad, some were about things he didn’t understand, but he decided whatever this Christmas thing was, he liked it.


	10. To stay at home is best.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title taken from the poem Song: Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Belle sighed in relief when the island finally came into view in the early afternoon light. She had spent the last month of winter and most of the spring at the edges of the Commonwealth, negotiating trade routes and deals with the Capitol Wasteland. Mac's friend, the other blue suit they had laughing referred to each other, had been a pleasant woman to meet. Sabrina had her shit together unlike a great many of the others. She never wanted to go back to the D.C.  area. It was still a war zone all these centuries later. She cut the engine in the shallow water and hopped out to drag the boat in. "I need a damn dock."

Her feet ached as she drug herself up to the cabins and cursed at the stairs as she tripped up them before banging through the door. "Mom!"

Shaun knocked into her bringing a smile to her face. "Hey, honey." She wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. "Oh, I've missed you." David was leaned against the stove and she gave him a warm smile. "You too."

He reached out and took her pack, returning the smile. "We missed you, General."

"Ugh, no." She shook her head, her ponytail whipping around and tangling in her jacket as she pulled it off. "I am done being the General for a." Her voice stuttered into silence as her eyes came to rest on them. Four bookcases, all taller than she was, now lined the front of the cabin framing the windows. Every book she had salvaged was neatly arranged on the dark shelves behind the glass doors with room to spare. She ran her fingers along a shelf, catching them tenderly against the hinges. "They're beautiful."

Shaun disappeared out the front door as she turned towards David. He spoke softly. "You needed some where to put your books and where they are, you will stay." Tears hung on her bottom lashes as she wrapped her arms around him and buried her head against his chest. "Will you?"

"Yes, my heart, I will." As she looked up at him, a soft smile on each of their faces and lips almost touching, Shaun let out a cheer. Belle chuckled, leaning her forehead against his chin and mock scowled at her son who was leaning through the open window. "You are ruining a moment."

He gave her a cheeky grin. "It's my job." He bounced within the frame. "And now I can call you Dad, right?"

His arms tightened around Belle momentarily before reaching out to Shaun, his voice gruff. "Come here you."

"Not through" Belle started as the boy clambered into the house. "the window." She sighed laughingly as they both wrapped an arm around him and he hugged them back. A tear landed on her nose and she went up on her toes to kiss David. "Our family and our home is the best."

"Ours is best." He nodded before kissing her forehead. 


	11. Then stay at home, my heart, and rest;

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title taken from the poem Song: Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

“Welcome to our island!” Belle sang out as folks began arriving at the docks of Far Harbor. She grinned as Piper hopped out of Preston’s boat and wrapped her in a hug. “I’m so happy to see you.”

“You would be happy no matter what, Blue. There could be a hurricane and you’d smile it down.”

 Belle laughed and yanked Preston in for a bone shattering hug as Nicky tipped his hat. “We can’t have a wedding without my best friends, you know.” Claire stepped quietly from the boat and her heart thudded in her chest as she released them. “And I certainly can’t have it without my sister.”

“I still don’t approve.” The sniff was rather lost with her lack of nose.

Belle rolled her eyes. “I’m not asking for your approval, Claire, just your presence and maybe a smile.”

Before the war, when she married Nate, her wedding had been a stately affair. A long white dress, an ornate hair do, people she didn’t know congratulating her for months afterwards. It had been a whirlwind of nerves that bordered on terror. This time? Standing on the Hull with Captain Avery, looking over Far Harbor and their assembled guests of friends from the town itself, from the mainland, and from Arcadia? She only felt joy. Tears formed in her eyes when Shaun handed them the rings he had made from polished metal, pride beaming from his young face. As they slipped the rings on to each other’s fingers they began reciting what they had selected for their vows.

“Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest;  
Home-keeping hearts are happiest,  
For those that wander they know not where  
Are full of trouble and full of care;  
To stay at home is best.

Weary and homesick and distressed,  
They wander east, they wander west,  
And are baffled and beaten and blown about  
By the winds of the wilderness of doubt;  
To stay at home is best.

Then stay at home, my heart, and rest;  
The bird is safest in its nest;  
O'er all that flutter their wings and fly  
A hawk is hovering in the sky;  
To stay at home is best.”

Captain Avery smiled as they finished. “Kiss your bride, David Longfellow.” And so he did, until the very stars danced in her head and the cheers of the crowded faded into the beating of their two hearts becoming one.

After everyone had left and David and Belle had gone back to the cabin for a honeymoon night while Shaun stayed with the Mariner, she presented him with a wedding gift. A quilt of blues like the sea she loved so well, carefully remade from old soft coats and blankets. She had stitched a pattern of waves across it, with a jumping whale, a scattering of tiny mudcrabs, and something she called an octopus. And in one corner she had sewn their names with their wedding date. He ran his hand across it with a smile, a soft tear forming at the corner of his eye. “It’s beautiful, sweetheart.”

She smiled in return and wrapped her arms around him, pinning it between them. “I thought it a good way to remind you of my love keeping you warm when duty inevitably calls me elsewhere.” Her nose wrinkled. “And it’s good for your old bones.”

David chuckled and kissed her nose. “Come to bed, my lovely wife.”

Belle hummed, her smile a glow of moonlight on the sea. “Happily.”


	12. The bird is safest in its nest;

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title taken from the poem Song: Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Belle shouldered pack and ran her fingers down the carving beside their door. She had gone up to Arcadia with Shaun one day and had come home to find their wedding vows carved into the wood. She smiled, they were wearing well. A touchstone of peace and love every time one of them walked out the door and left home; home where it was safe. Shaun cornered her on the steps. “We got your boat in the water. Do you have to go?”

She sighed. She had the same argument with David the night before. “Piper wants help with this story. Nuka World was a big deal in my time, if it’s an actual safe trading hub it could be a big deal again. And I am the best person short of Nicky to travel with her. He’s busy with a case down south. I will be back before you know it!” They hit the sand, her boots sinking a bit with each step.

David held her line, waiting for her to scramble up. “You should take the dog.”

She kissed him, the beard still tickled but it was easier to ignore with all the practice. “I will be fine, darling.” She turned and hugged Shaun, planting a kiss on his forehead that he wiped off. “Take care of our boy.” She stole one last kiss before scrambling up into the boat with a helpful shove on her butt. They pushed her into the water and she was gone.

Every bump in the waves made her ache when she came home. Her bruises had bruises. When they had made it out of that hell hole of an amusement park she had told Piper if she ever wanted a crazy story again they were taking a whole group of Minutemen. She had laughed. “I need a drink.” She killed the motor and let it drift up on the beach with a wave.

David and Shaun met her halfway to the cabins. “Mom!” He slammed into her and she groaned.

“Hold on, son.” David wrestled the pack from her and handed it to him before scooping her up. “You could have told us you were hurt. The Mariner would have taken us to the Castle and we would have brought you home.”

“I wanted to be home now.” She whined.

He settled her in a chair when they got to the house before pulling off her boots. She hissed, even her feet were bruised. “Who did you pick a fight with?”

“Raiders. A whole damn park of them.” She laughed. “One of their own betrayed them in the beginning, he was worried about my association with the Railroad and leading a crusade for the synths while I was in charge. He should have been concerned that I am the fucking General of the Minutemen and no one attacks my fucking settlements or holds slaves in the Commonwealth.”

He raised an eyebrow as he handed her a bottle of whiskey. “You killed them all.”

“Every last one.” She took a long drink. “It’s now a safe trading hub under Minutemen protection and a safehouse for the Railroad while they move synths out the Commonwealth.” Her breath stuttered. “You don’t want to know what they were doing to people.” Shaun and David stared at each other as her gaze faded far away.

After a few long minutes as Shaun unpacked her bag she shook her head. “It wasn’t all bad. We met a guy who had been raised by gorillas. A group of religious folks who called themselves hubologists and seemed to perform radiation lobotomies.” She leaned back in the chair and kicked up her feet on the table with a smile. “And I got to go back to King Cola’s Court. That was my favorite place as a kid. All the rides still work too!”

Shaun perked up. “Can we go back?”

She grinned. “I don’t see why not, it’s safe enough now. I want to look into those flowers some more. The locals called them fever blossoms. I have some pressed in my journal, they glow.” She grimaced a little as her back popped. “But maybe give me a few weeks to recover?” David and Shaun both laughed.


	13. O'er all that flutter their wings and fly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title taken from the poem Song: Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

The radio went off again as Belle was elbow deep in a bucket of tatos. “That’s it! I have fucking had it!” David and Shaun stared at her before following Dogmeat’s lead and backing away slowly as she continued to spew profanities. She stormed into their cabin and slammed the door with enough force it bounced back open. 

Shaun stared up at David. “I forgot I told the Mariner I would help her with some fishing.” He took off down the worn path towards Far Harbor.

“Hey!” David yelled after him. He sighed as the boy disappeared in the autumn sunshine before turning back to the cabin and straightening his shoulders. At least fire wasn’t spitting out the open door. 

She was hunched over her desk, the radio cradled gently in one hand and her head in the other. Her dark hair was shot through with the sun, setting the deep red blaze burning within it. He placed a gentle kiss against the top of her head, rubbing his hands against her slumped shoulders. “I’ll be there by noon tomorrow. General, out.” She let out a long weary sigh before leaning her head back against him, her eyes closed. “I am so tired, David. I’ve barely been home this summer. They don’t need me as much as they think.” Her voice dropped to a faint whisper. 

“What are you going to do then, sweetheart?”

She scrubbed her hands across her face. “I don’t know.” She stared out the window a moment, eyes focusing on the waves. “Throw them in the deep end.”

“Belle, we need you.” He followed her to the dock.

“No, Preston, you don’t.” She gave him a soft smile as she turned and then readjusted the General’s hat on his head. “You have been using me as a crutch. You have brilliant ideas in that mind of yours, you have all that compassion and kindness that the Commonwealth needs. I was the General for war. You are the General for peace.”

He sighed and shook his head. “Alright, but only because you said it so nicely.” She gave him a grin before wrapping herself in his hug. “Promise you’ll be around for a weekly call?”

“Of course.” She scoffed. “And this is my dock, you know. I’m retired, not dead. Besides, I still have the Far Harbor settlements to watch over and that will take some coordinating on our parts.”

“All twice a century.” He chuckled. “Be safe on the journey home.”

She hopped into her boat and gave him a cheeky salute. “Don’t worry, general, this sea witch will sing herself safely home.” 


	14. A hawk is hovering in the sky;

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title taken from the poem Song: Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Dogmeat lay by the stove, his ears not as perky as they had been. Silver had begun to spot his fur and one eye had begun to cloud with age. Belle watched him breathe in the flickering candlelight, wrapped tight in a quilt. “Your face will stick like that.” 

She couldn’t manage the smile David expected as he settled in bed beside her. “Dogmeat has been acting funny.” He wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close as she tossed the quilt over him. She huffed as her head settled against his shoulder. “I’m just worried. He was my first friend when I left the vault, hell, my only friend. If it wasn’t for Dogmeat things would be very different.” David made a strange rumble of a noise that made her swat half-heartedly at him. “I’m serious. I could have been a psychotic mass murderer if it wasn’t for him. He gave me something to care about, a reason to care about myself. You are always on your best behavior when you worry about how it will make your dog feel.” 

He chuckled against her hair. “Maybe we can figure it out together.”

She nodded slowly and wrapped her fingers with his. “He acts like his legs hurt, like they can’t bear his weight. He’s not eating as much either and he hasn’t been following Shaun everywhere. Shaun told me the other day he even ignored a whole flock of birds. He’s been sleeping more and snarling at shadows.”

“Sounds like me.” She heaved an exasperated sigh. “Fog could be in his bones, Belle.” A soft sniff met his ears and he tightened his arms around her. “I’m sorry.”

She nodded, wiping away the tears. “I thought that too. If it affected him faster? Or he could be older then I think he is.” She turned more on her side so she could bury her head in his chest. “I’m not ready, David.”

He stared at the brave beast that was watching them now, his ears cocked forward in interest. “He will let you know when he’s ready, sweetheart. It’ll be his choice.” Dogmeat gave a single thump of his tail before laying his head back down and closing his eyes.


	15. To stay at home is best.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title taken from the poem Song: Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

A few weeks after the first snows had fallen, Dogmeat disappeared. Belle combed the island. She called until her throat cracked, burning metallic into her stomach and making it heave. Then she whistled until her lips split, blue and numb in the winter night. The stars blazed with a shattering clarity, peerless. She felt their weight like a thousand gazes as she chafed her cold hands together again. The lights of home beckoned her, a warm beacon against the frigid darkness. The waves even sounded harsher as she walked the shore.

She knew Dogmeat’s time was coming. She had hoped it would be quiet; a peaceful death by the stove in his sleep. David hadn’t seemed surprised that Dogmeat had went out for his morning duties and hadn’t returned. She sighed, of course he would understand, it seemed like something David would pull too. She needed to go home to Shaun, her poor boy who was more heartbroken then she was over their loss. Her sweet, kind son who had just lost his best friend. She pulled herself together with a shake and tripped over a rock. Belle laid sprawled on the cold beach staring at the waves coming in and how the starlight shone off a large white rock. It was a lovely one she decided and hauled herself to her feet to snatch it up. She ran her fingers across it, memories of her life before tugging at her. “Alabaster.” She smiled up at the starlight and sent a heartfelt thank you to the universe. Dogmeat may have wanted to rest in peace in a place of his own choosing but his humans would have something after all.

 

Shaun stumbled down his ladder bleary eyed and heart sore in the next morning. Mom was snoring softly in their bed; it was late for her but the light had been on still when he had woken in the middle of the night. Dad wrapped an arm around his shoulders and he tucked his head against his shoulder before taking his coffee. In the window by the stove a stone glowed in the sunlight, a red bandana tied around it. He stepped towards it, tracing the letters with his fingers reverently. He met his dad’s eyes, asking the question he couldn’t find words for. “Mom made it last night, found it down by the shore.” His gruff voice softened. “She wants to make a garden, a memory garden.” Shaun nodded and took a long sip of his coffee before setting it down with a sniff and going to their bed. He tapped her on the shoulder and she opened her arms, letting him settle his head against her heart; where all memory gardens are started.


	16. Flow down, cold rivulet, to the sea, Thy tribute wave deliver:

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title From: A Farewell by Alfred Lord Tennyson

It was Shaun's birthday. Baby Shaun, from before, when her world finally crashed and burned the first time. When Nate brought him home and said surprise with a sheepish grin and not a single apology for his infidelity. Not a single mournful tear for the woman who died birthing the child from her body; a woman who's name she never learned. The regret still tasted bitter in her mouth two centuries later. She had deserved someone mourning her from their broken household. Belle settled the piece of alabaster next to Dogmeat's. The woman had given her the best gift of all, her Shaun. It was his birthday too; all 13 years old and wise beyond his years, full of kindness and a wildness that only a child of the woods acquired. 

And he hadn't aged a day since she had met him in that lonely cell in the Institute. 

"Do you think it bothers him?" David looked up from weeding the corn and she dusted the dirt from her hands across her thighs. "That he isn't aging. 13 was when puberty was kicking me in the teeth; boobs, boys, the start of the raging hormones." She blew a raspberry. "What if all that is trapped in a ten year old’s body? Worse, what about when he's older? A grown man in his mind, with a man's thoughts and desires, in a child's body?"

"Have you asked him?"

She sighed. "I don't know how."

David chuckled. "Death has never caused you to falter but this conversation does?" She scowled at him and he continued gently. "Talk to him, take him up to Arcadia. If anyone will have ideas, it's them."

Belle took a deep breath. "Shaun, I want to talk to you about something."

He looked up from his book, suspicion clouding his brown eyes. "I didn't do it."

Her laugh was dry sounding even to her. "Not this time." She swallowed past the unease in her throat, her fingers tangling in the ratty hem of her shirt. She sighed, the words leaving in a rush. "You are 13 now, and sometimes boys start getting urges and-."

"Whoa. Mom. No." He slapped his hands over his ears. When he was sure she had stopped, he dropped them carefully. "Dad already talked to me about that. Bertha kissed me at the Last Plank." He made a sour face as Belle covered her mouth with her hand trying to contain her laughter. "It was slobbery and I'm not interested."

A breath of relief filled her lungs but she continued with a tremor of trepidation in her chest. "Your body isn't aging, sweetheart. You should be growing taller, and many other things." She settled in the chair across from him, tucking her feet in beside her. "I just. I worry." He gave her a grin. "Would you go to Arcadia and let Faraday look at you?"

He nodded. "Anything to keep the not General from worrying." 

Faraday's news had been strange. Shaun would never age. The parts of his brain that would have provide the terrible raging hormones of puberty didn't exist. He would mature in his mind, through experience and knowledge but that was it. They discussed transferring him into another body, an adult body, sometime in the future. Shaun said he would think about it but that for now he was happy to remain a child. 

"What about you, Belle? Are you content with his decision?" David whispered gently in the warm darkness of their bed. 

She settled against his shoulder, enjoying the caress of his fingers along her spine. "Yes. I am content letting him be my baby as long as he desires." He chuckled softly and kissed her hair. "An extended childhood is something we all wanted anyway."


	17. No more by thee my steps shall be, Forever and forever.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title From: A Farewell by Alfred Lord Tennyson

"Mom, why don't we celebrate your birthday?" 

Belle froze over the stove, spoon dangling in the air and dripping stew. "Um, I don't want to." She went back to stirring. "It seems odd to celebrate my birthday, I'm over two centuries old. Nicky and I would have to get matching shirts, we survived the War, fuck you."

Shaun laughed. "Deacon too."

"Probably." She chuckled. 

He considered her a moment. "How old are you, Mom?" 

"I don't know anymore, sweetheart. I stopped counting."

 

But she did know. She trudged out to her shop, through a scattering of snow and found herself haunted by her memories. She had turned 245 with the summer heat. The lantern glass reflected her face back to her. Unlined, unchanged, still the 27-year-old face that had went into the vault. The letter she had been writing to Mac crumpled in her fist. She had known the risks she took letting the scientists tinker with her at the Institute. She had wanted to be there for her Shaun; be the mother he needed, to be an indestructible general. Now? David's hair grew whiter with every passing year, the fog deep in his aching bones and keeping him bound to their cabin on the coldest of days when he would rather be out on their island. The Long Walk would call him; it was in his future but not in hers, not yet, not for a long time. 

"Belle?" She felt his thumbs brush the tears from her cheeks. "Sweetheart."

She leaned into his embrace, letting his strength wash over her like a wave. His coat smelled of salt, a touch of oil and gunpowder and his beard tickled her forehead. "I'm not aging. I won't be."

"I know." His quiet words, his acceptance hurt. She wanted his anger, wanted him to rage, to show the ferocity he had only leveled at those he fought and never at those he loved. 

She sniffled. "I made a mistake. I don't want to live without you. Not for decades. Centuries."

"Fool." He said softly, full of love as he brushed a kiss against her hair. "We knew when we started this you would outlive me. And we have years, the Long Walk doesn't call me yet."

"I thought." Her breath gasped out. "I thought we would have forever and always, the marriage of stories and fairytales that never ends. No death to part our love." Her sobs broke against his chest. "I want to grow old with you."

He rocked her, singing softly his many songs as she poured out her sorrow. Eventually she fell into silence, still clutched against him. He placed a gentle finger beneath her chin, lifting her face for a soft kiss. "I love you. Any time we have is a blessing. And I will wait to walk with you on the other side." Her red rimmed eyes filled with tears again as her lips trembled. His thumb stroked her jaw. "I will wait forever if I must, my Belle. But you are never alone."

She nodded and pulled him closer, burying herself back against him. "We will walk it together then, my love."


	18. Flow, softly flow, by lawn and lea, A rivulet then a river:

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title From: A Farewell by Alfred Lord Tennyson

David brushed a kiss against her temple. She had cropped her long curls short this year and they stuck out from her head in an auburn halo. "How many quilts will you sew, wife?"

She smiled up at him. "Until the cold is no longer in your bones." She leaned against his hand and laid a kiss on his gnarled knuckles. Ten years of marriage had added its scars to his body. He had a slight limp now, that was worse on damp days. But his eyes were still bright and his mind shrewd. "Shaun head out?"

"Yeah." He wandered to their stove for another coffee. "Swears we are running low on meat."

She chuckled. "I think he wanted to give us the day to ourselves."

"Maybe." He smiled over his cup. His gaze went past her, decades past. "Do you think we could add two stones?" Belle set aside her sewing and wrapped her arms around his waist, concern knitting her brow. He spoke softly. "For Hannah and the baby. I think it's time." 

She nodded, tightening her arms around him. "I wish I could have given you one."

He kissed her. "Shaun is my son, love. Our family is perfect."

She snuggled against his chest. "It is." She leaned up on her toes and kissed him again. "I'll take a break from sewing and carve them myself."

Belle had planted hubsflowers in the spring to frame Dogmeat's stone. David added the two new stones, the smaller one nestled next to the larger in their shade. Belle wrapped an arm around his waist. "It is good."

"It is."


	19. Nowhere by thee my steps shall be Forever and forever.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title From: A Farewell by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Rebuilding a boat engine was probably the strangest thing she had done in the Commonwealth. But as she patted it and hooked in the last wires connecting it all together, running an all-electric boat beat the hell out of scavenging gas. batteries were easy. All that time helping her dad work on their old clunker growing up was turning out to be useful after all. "Are you comin' in for lunch?" David called.

She gave him a dazzling smile and hopped over the side, water lapping at her knees and soaking her rolled up pant legs. "I'm not turning down your cooking." The hot sand was unpleasant after the cool water on her toes and she quickly danced up to the grass. "Engine's done, I'll finish the last polish on the panels tomorrow once they are good and dry in the shop."

"Damnedest thing I've seen." He chuckled, lacing his fingers with hers. "You still hell bent on building a damn dock?"

"It's not building." She scowled. "It’s commandeering, relocating, and possibly repairing."

He tugged her close for a kiss. "Is the sea witch turning into a pirate?"

"Arrr." She giggled against his lips. 

The dock had been easy enough to tow in. Securing it to their beach had been an adventure; Shaun had a crash course in swimming and diving from his mother while David shouted directions from the shore and Belle splashed water at him and shouted directions back. They had settled in tying it to a few steady rock outcroppings and trees along with several anchors. Only a few of its buoys needed repairs. All in all, it was a good dock. 

David cut the planks and she affixed the smaller buoys to make the floating walkway. Shaun was all to happy to dig the holes for the posts to secure them in the beach. It took them several days, but when Belle wiped the sweat from her brow, and some dirt on to it, it was marvelous indeed. She grinned at her boys. "Let's get the dinghy in the water and store her proper!"


	20. But here will sigh thine alder tree And here thine aspen shiver;

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title From: A Farewell by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Belle leaned against the boardwalk railing, reveling in the cool breeze that ran along the waves and through her hair, catching her song from her lips and dancing it across their island. She leaned into David's embrace when his arms wrapped around her waist. "Twenty years you've been my wife, sea witch. Not once have you grown fins and scales or shed a seal skin. But I think your heart belongs to the water more than it does me."

She shook her head with a chuckle. "That would be a sorry thing, to love the sea more then the man who made me coffee this morning."

"Damn right." He pulled her closer and she tried to forget her worries and the years that weighed heavily on him now. "Shaun finished supper and told me we are to not bother him for the evening."

She turned in his arms, wiggling carefully to not jostle his bad leg and hiding her wince when pain flashed across his face anyway. She rose on her tiptoes and kissed him gently. "I think it sounds like a fine plan." She broke out in a mischievous smile. "Unless a sea witch in the cabin is bad luck?"

He leaned his forehead against hers, his smile bristling out his beard. "I'm just an old hunter, not a sailor. My sea witch is all the luck I need."

After dinner, a hearty stew of fresh vegetables and venison, Belle and David snuggled up in their bed. The sun was setting, a orange flaming disk fading into deepest purples. It had been some years since they had made love, and while Belle missed it, she was content with his warmth next to hers and long kisses. Old age may have made some things too stiff for him to move comfortably, and others too limp, but it had never dampened the look in his eyes or the gentleness in his hands. He began to murmur softly against her hair. 

"She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impaired the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

Or softly lightens o’er her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express,

How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent."

She leaned up on her elbow, smile soft as she brushed a stray lock of white hair back from his forehead before blessing a gentle kiss on his lips. "Charmer."

He wrapped his fingers with hers to brush a kiss against her knuckles. "I'm just getting started." He reached over the side of the bed and pulled out a book. She recognized the cover, a few years ago she had made paper and bound it into blank leather bound books using the plethora of hides they had. He handed it to her and she flipped it open, running her fingers over his familiar scrawl. "I went through our books and copied down everything that made me think of you." 

She bit back tears and sat up, pillowing his head in her lap. The first page was their wedding vows, lovingly carved on the wall of their cabin and ink splattered on the page. Her voice shook. "To my wife, the happiest thing in my life." Her fingers trailed across his cheek. "I love you." He smiled and let his eyes settle shut as she began to read them out loud. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron


	21. And here by thee will hum the bee, Forever and forever.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title From: A Farewell by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Summer had trailed into a brief fall and a hard winter. Belle had watched as the man she loved was confined to the inside of their cabin, bones aching and wrapped in a quilt in his favorite chair. On good days, he had a book in his hand and it was peaceful, normal. On the bad days, he had glared out the windows and barely spoke. And her heart ached. Spring had finally come to the island and he had joined her in preparing the garden for the morning. It wasn’t the back-breaking work it had been the first few years, the well-tended soil yielded under their hoes and shovels. David leaned against his and stretched. “Im going to go in and lay down for a little bit.”

She gave him a smile and a kiss. “That was a nasty cold you had. Get some rest, my heart.”

He chuckled. “You had that nasty cold too.” She shook her head and watched him go inside. The limp was worse this year. The winter’s cold had settled into the knee and nothing they did had helped. She went back to work with a sigh. 

The sun was high when she took a break, grabbed a bucket of cold water at the pump for lunch and hauled it inside. “What are we having for lunch?” She banged in through the door. 

Silence met her. She set the bucket on the table. David was still in bed, under several quilts more then what the day’s weather required. “David?” Fear trembled in her voice, shook in her hands. She half stumbled to their bed, pulling aside the blankets and rolling him on to his back. So cold against her hands, so still. “No. No. No, no, no.” She searched franticly for a pulse, watched for the rise of his chest. “Damn you, David, not like this. Not yet.” Tears began to fall and her forehead touched his. “No. I had it planned. My last words were supposed to be I love you.” A sob racked her body and she pressed her lips against his cold ones. “I love you.”

Belle didn’t know how long she cried. The sun was no longer at its zenith, the water no longer cold as she splashed it against her face. Shaun was wearing her old pip-boy and she sat down at the radio, dialing him in. “Shaun, its mom. I need you to come home. It’s important.” She repeated it three times, voice catching. She turned it off and waited. 

Shaun came bursting through the open door as the sun was setting. “I was up at Arcadia helping Chase and Mom?” She burst into tears and wrapped her arms around him. “Mom, what’s wrong?” His eyes roved the cabin, finally lighting on David. “Dad.” He said softly.

She nodded, pulling herself together and clearing her throat. “In his sleep. We were in the garden and he said he needed to rest.”

Shaun wrapped an arm around his mom. “We need to bury him.” She nodded and they said together. “Bury me with a bottle.”

They buried him with one of the quilts, a bottle at his head and at his feet. Shaun asked her to sing as he threw dirt over him. She sang David’s favorites, tears streaming down her cheeks as the stars lit up the night sky. When Shaun was finished, she wrapped an arm around his thin shoulders and held him as he wept. “I miss Dad already.” 

“I miss him too, sweetheart. I miss him too.”


	22. A thousand suns will stream on thee,

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title From: A Farewell by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Belle turned on the radio early for the weekly call from Diamond City as she made her tea. Hubsflowers were in their first blossoms, tender and fragrant, as she poured the boiling water over them. The low static was interrupted by a frantic voice. "Belle?!"

She tossed herself into the chair, catching herself on the table as it rocked up on to one side and threatened to keel over. "Nat? Is that you? What's wrong?"

"It's Piper." The static was silent for a heartbeat and then two. "She's dead."

Night was falling; a boat ride in the dark, even with a spotlight, to the mainland was a risk. She could hear David's voice in her head as shook his ghost from her thoughts. "I'm headed in now. I'll be there as soon as I can, Nat. I promise."

"I know."

She turned off the radio and pulled on her boots. She was grabbing David's coat from the foot of the bed when Shaun wandered in to the cabin. "Mom? Something wrong with Aunt Piper or Aunt Claire?"

She froze a moment and swallowed before stuffing her arms into the sleeves. "She's dead. Piper. Nat called in. I'm headed to the mainland now." He nodded, his young face dark with sorrow, so close together. She pulled him into her arms in a tight hug. "Do you want to stay or go? I know you love them dearly but it's Diamond City."

He sighed against her shoulder. "I'll stay. Someone should look after the island. Piper would understand. Give Aunt Claire and Nat my love."

Belle nodded and placed a gentle kiss against his forehead. "She would and I will. Make sure Daisy doesn't drink the damn sea water." He chuckled. "I'll be back soon."

He called out to her from the dock as she fired up the boat. "Sing yourself safely home, Mom."

She gave a jaunty salute with her patched captain's hat before singing back to him as she pulled away. "I'm not a sea witch for nothing."

The Castle came into sight as dawn broke over the horizon. Her voice was hoarse and gravely but she continued to sing as she turned toward the dock. She had called herself in an hour ago, Preston's sleepy voice full of concern before snapping into the General by the end of the call. He met her at the dock, her eyes blood shot and sore, as he pulled her into a tight embrace. She took a deep shuddering breath letting it calm her flayed nerves. He always smelled the same, gunpowder and leather with underlying hint of sweet. Innocence untainted even after all he had seen and done, even as his hair had silvered at the temples. He held her until she pulled away, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Have you heard anything from Nat?"

He shook his head. "Just what you told me. I'm going with you into Diamond City, knowing Piper it wasn't quietly."

She nodded. "I thought that too. She sounded so scared, Preston." She leaned back into the boat, grabbed her pack and her trusty shotgun. "We'll talk to Nicky and we'll find out who. Then I will snap them into a thousand little pieces." The girl at the end of the dock took a step back and Belle grinned at Preston. "New recruit?" He groaned and nodded. She laid her hand on the girl's shoulder. "Do you know who I am?"

She stood a little straighter. "No, ma'am."

She chuckled. "Good manners at least. General Belle Faust, retired. The Castle you sleep in? I reclaimed it, darling girl." She patted her shoulder. "I've snapped a lot things into a lot of little pieces. It's not so bad."

She walked off the dock and girl called after her. "Would you sign my gun?"

Diamond City hadn't changed since the last time she had visited, hadn’t changed since the first time she had visited. She swallowed back the rough feeling in her throat at the memory. Last time, David had been beside her, fingers curled tight against hers and packs heavy with things to sell and a list of things to buy for themselves and for the harborfolk. If she closed her eyes she could almost fell his thumb grazing against her wrist, again and again. "Valentine's at Publick Occurrences." Preston's voice broke against her thoughts, like waves erasing a picture in the sand.

Her boots cleared the bottom of the ramp. "Hey, Nick."

"Ready for another case?" A cigarette dangled from his lips, an old human habit that stung against her heart. If it rocked Nicky, she wasn't sure she wanted it.

She sighed. "I was hoping you wouldn't say that. Ellie?"

"She's inside, Claire isn't taking it well." Belle nodded, her gaze in the dirt. "Nat saw it happen." Her eyes met his, sharper then she intended but he didn't flinch away. "Several people did. She was coming out of the Dugout."

"Claire wasn't with her?" Her brows furrowed.

He shook his head. "No. They had been fighting again." She sighed. “It’ll be easy enough. I tracked the bastard to his little hideout. If you hadn’t been due to walk through that gate, I would have taken care of it.”

She nodded. “Let’s go.”

 

The little bastard hadn’t screamed enough. He hadn’t begged. Belle had wanted to make him suffer, to drag out his death in a million ways before leaving him to rot. Nick and Preston’s presence gave him a clean death, a better death then he deserved. Instead of checking for a pulse she had set her shotgun to his head and pulled the trigger again. She walked away then and all the way back to Diamond City. The guard hadn’t stopped with her blood splattered armor and she had walked into Piper’s newspaper. Nat was silent on the couch until she stepped into her line of sight. Those big brown eyes flared to life for a moment. “He’s dead?” Belle nodded and the young woman started to cry and Belle had hugged her, covered in her sister’s killer’s blood. And Belle cried too.

Publick Occurences shut down with Nat joining the Minutemen as their writer. Belle thought it was a good fit for her, and an easy way for her to keep an eye on things. Preston wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Are you sure you are going to be okay going back to the island alone?”

She nodded. “I’ll radio in when I get there.” Fire burned her nose as her chest heaved. “I can’t believe she’s gone. First David and now Piper, I hate losing the people I love.” He gave her a gentle squeeze. She wiped the tears from her eyes and wrapped him in a hug. “You stay put, you hear me?”

“Yes, ma’am.”


	23. A thousand moons will quiver;

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title From: A Farewell by Alfred Lord Tennyson

His hacking, wet cough echoed over the radio waves. "Are you taking care of that cold, General?"

She heard the wheeze in his laughter but made no comment on it. "Did I always sound like that?"

Belle chuckled. "Worse. You would say that with a bowl of soup in one hand, a mug of tea in the other, with blankets and a book already piled on my couch. Then you'd look all woeful with those big brown eyes of yours and I'd go be sick out of everyone's way."

"Well, the couch is worse for wear but I did have soup." She twirled the radio line around her finger. She had seen Preston a few months ago, hair gone silver and he had crow’s feet and laugh lines. In the forty years she had known him, he managed to even age like a beacon of light and the past twenty years since David and Piper’s deaths he had been a light in hers. "You're quiet tonight, Belle."

She shook her head. "I spend a lot of time with my thoughts these days. I'm not sure if I'm good company or crazy."

"Both. You've always been that."

She laughed. "So charming, no wonder I never had any Garvey grandbabies to spoil. Tsk."

"You have lieutenants and a colonel."

"She is a mouthy thing." She rolled her eyes. "Too much like me. She'll be good for them when you retire."

"Yes, she will." His voice was quiet she almost missed it. "I wish I could have made it up to your island for a visit."

She smiled fondly. "There's always a next time, Preston. Shaun and I always love having you here."

"Yeah, next time. Take care of yourself, General."

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do." She sang with a smile before the other end went quiet and she turned off the radio. 

 

A few days later a boat appeared at their dock. Shaun helped them moor the boat as Belle wiped the dirt from her hands. The uniforms were still garish targets on the field but the Minutemen were always recognizable. A woman approached her cautiously, memory tugged at belle. This was the young woman who wanted her to sign her gun when Piper died and was now Preston’s colonel. "Can I help you?"

She wavered a moment. "General Belle Faust?" She nodded. "General Preston Garvey passed on in his sleep two nights ago. He left me with explicit orders to give you this, ma'am." She reached out and handed Belle Preston's hat and his pack. 

She ran her fingers across the brim and bit back her tears. Her voice shook. "Thank you." She took a deep breath and met the woman's eyes. "Are you taking on the title now?"

She nodded. "He left it in his orders that I would take his place. I hope I can do him proud."

Belle gave her a gentle smile, a far gentler one then she felt. "You will. He wouldn't have picked you otherwise."

The new General squared her shoulders and they all gave her a salute before they all scrambled back on the boat. Belle sighed watching them leave, ignoring the weight on her arm and drowning in the weight in her heart. 

She hung his hat next to David's coat, trailing her fingers down the navy blue wool and letting them catch on the patches and frays. She settled the pack on her desk and opened it as Shaun leaned in the window. Books, leather bound and uneven edges, she flipped the top one open. A date in Preston's tidy writing followed by several pages about the day, minutemen doings, personal musings, the state of the Commonwealth, news on his friends. And then a sketch, the young colonel who was now the General with her hair down and blowing in the wind. Belle snapped it shut and gathered the rest before gently settling them behind a glass door of a bookshelf. "Are they sad?" Shaun had a stem of grass dangling from his lips. 

She sighed. "His memories, sadness and joy in equal measure. I'm not ready." She gave him a small smile. 

He stuck his hand into the house holding a large white stone. "I found his."

She took it from him and examined it with a nod. "Yes. This is his."

 

She had Preston's stone finished by the next afternoon. She had taken her time. Each curve of a letter had brought fresh tears to her eyes, Piper's stone had the angry slashes of raw grief. She had thought about redoing her stone but it felt right, the rawness of the emotion. But for Preston, she wanted a memorial stone as beautiful as he had been. She settled it beside Piper's and gave it a gentle pat before making sure all the stones were clean. Her memory garden had so many stones it seemed, undwarfed by the hubsflowers and asters they rested amongst. 

Belle went inside and made a cup of coffee, staring at the journals and sighed. She pulled them out, set them on the bed and curled up under the wedding quilt and found the oldest one. She took a fortifying sip and started reading the first page. 


	24. But not by thee my steps shall be,

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title From: A Farewell by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Another decade, a long ten years of almost loneliness of just her and Shaun on their island. They had stopped going into Far Harbor, with Captain Avery and everyone else gone it just wasn’t the same. On the rare occasion they needed supplies, they took the boat to the mainland, radioing ahead to Nicky and making a week of it amongst her old settlements. It had been Shaun’s idea to set up robots with Mirelurk shells to guard the island. The glowing red eyes, the uncanny speed, laser fire, these were the Red Death of legend. The sea spray and storms meant he was constantly repairing them but he enjoyed the work, almost as much as he enjoyed putting on various wigs and shrieking across the island on clear nights. David’s sea witch had become exactly that on her haunted island with mirelurk minions. It made her laugh far more than it should.

Chase and Faraday approached them about being a safe harbor for incoming synths, skipping Far Harbor all together. The Railroad, or whoever was doing the transport, would drop them off on her dock. Either Belle or Shaun would escort them up or someone from Arcadia would come down to get them. On stormy nights, or days when the Fog was thick, the newcomers would stay on her island for the time. Sometimes they were pleasant company, other times they were glad to see them go.

One stormy night a transport became lost. Belle sighted as she pulled Preston’s hat down low over her ears and David’s coat she buttoned tight before heading out into the storm. “Damn, kids. It just couldn’t wait until the storm blew through. Oh no, don’t listen to the lady who lives out in the damn ocean and knows what she’s talking about. It’s a matter of life and death. No, it wasn’t. You are being an idiot.”

Shaun laughed. “I am staying home.”

“What don’t want to listen to me yell at them?” She grinned.

“Nope. And I don’t want to be a witness to you throwing them overboard.”

She found parts of the boat in the choppy water. “Damn. Double damn.” She trolled slowly, steering her boat and the search light hoping she would find the survivors. Her light caught a glint of something, seaweed or hair and she brought her boat alongside. She drug the woman on board, clutching her daughter. The girl was breathing, eyes wide and staring at Belle. She gave her a smile and set to work on getting the water from the woman’s lungs. She coughed up buckets, breath returning to her body but not waking.

“Come on, little one. We need to take your mama into the cabin where its warm.” She tugged the woman over her shoulders and staggered into the cabin. She striped her out of the wet clothes and bundled her into the cot before checking her little heater.

“Anna.” Belle looked up at the girl, brow furrowing. “I’m Anna.”

She nodded. “Anna, I’m Belle. Let’s get you out of those wet clothes so you don’t get sick.” She handed her some of Shaun’s spare clothes, hilariously big on the little girl but better then freezing on the cold sea. “I have to steer the boat, but I will get you to shore safely.” The girl nodded and sat on the cot beside her mother.

Belle took her wheel and eyed the wreckage once more. She was lucky she found them. The odds of finding the others were slim, and the longer the woman was without care the less likely she would be to pull through. She sighed and started the engine. She would light candles for them at home.

They had been blown far off their course and Belle was antsy. Her voice lilted into song with ease. “Where dips the rocky highland Of Sleuth Wood in the lake, There lies a leafy island Where flapping herons wake The drowsy water rats; There we've hid our faery vats, Full of berries And of reddest stolen cherries. Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand. For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.”. The old poem was easy enough in song and she hummed a melody before moving into another.

Anna joined her on the deck staring at the sky. “You sang the storm away.”

Belle glanced at the sky, the storm clouds blowing out to sea as they pushed to the island. She smiled. “My husband used to call me a sea witch. My grandmother was one too. My grandpa was a fisherman and she sang him safely home every day with his nets full of fish. Maybe it’s in my blood.”

The girl nodded. “Mama says adventure is in my blood. I wanted to go with Papa to the island after our neighbors said bad things. I like the water so I can swim. Mama and Papa can’t.” Her face fell.

Belle chewed her lip. “Once I get you and your mama to safe harbor I will go back and look for your papa.”

Anna shook her head. “No, you sang the sea to sleep. Papa was already asleep in the sea.” She went back into the cabin and curled up beside her mother.

Belle sang the rest of the way to Far Harbor and carried the woman up the stairs to the doctor’s herself, holding Anna’s hand until it was declared the woman would be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Stolen Child by Yeats


	25. Forever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title From: A Farewell by Alfred Lord Tennyson

After Piper’s death, Claire had moved out of Diamond City. She had picked a small cabin near the Slog where her and Belle had originally been reunited. Belle visited every few months but Shaun kept away from his aunt. Drink had been her vice of choice when Piper was alive and after her death she had become a vicious drunk. Her favorite targets were Belle and Shaun and after one too many comments about robot boy he had enough.

During her last visit, Belle had thought Claire was acting strangely. Moments of confusion where she would stare at nothing, other moments of mind boggling rage. Belle had dismissed it, old age was unkind. Today, Claire was her usual self. “You could move here with me. Your son can take care of himself.”

“I like my island, Claire.” The same tired argument, Belle didn’t miss the Commonwealth or want it.

“It’s uncivilized.” She sneered and Belle snorted. Claire sighed sadly. “I’m lonely.”

“Move out there with us, we have two cabins. And it’s not like you do anything.”

She snarled. “How could I? Unlike you, I am not blessed with eternal youth and beauty. No, I am the ugly old sister.” Belle closed her eyes, turning the drink in her hands. “No, I can’t live on that island.”

“Then take a lover.”

The table thudded against Belle’s ribs. “Did you not hear what I just said?” Claire shrieked.

Belle’s eyes flashed, anger sparking in their blue depths. “There are plenty of female ghouls, or male if you want that. There are even humans who don’t mind, Piper didn’t. But its better then feeling sorry for yourself.”

Claire laughed. “What? Like you? After David died? How many lovers have you taken, pretty little sister, on your secluded island?”

Belle sighed. “I’m going to bed.” Claire snatched her arm, nails digging into her flesh. “Let me go, Claire.”

“Not until you answer my question.”

“I’ve had sex since David died. Not lovers, and not on my island. I’m woman, not a walking corpse.” Claire let go of her with a gasp and Belle stalked to the corner with her bedroll and threw herself into it, steadfastly ignoring her sister crying and the tears streaking down her own face.

 

Something dripped on to her face, waking her in the night. A leak in Claire’s roof? After their fight, the least she could do is fix it. A decent apology for her cruel words. She brushed it away and turned over, looking directly up into Claire’s face. “Claire?” Her head tilted to one side, vacant empty eyes. Cold gripped Belle’s spine. “Sis?”

She snatched out at Belle, nails dragging down her chest leaving bloody trails. Belle lashed out with her fist, knocking her back so she could scramble to her feet and vault the couch, skidding across the floor to her pack and her shotgun. She brought it up as that sound left her sister. That horrible sound ferals made, that haunted her nightmares and made her afraid of small spaces. “Claire, please.” She begged. Claire kept coming forward and she pulled the trigger. As the blast sounded through the cabin, clarity filled Claire’s eyes.

Belle could never decide if it was loathing or relief was in them.


	26. And Forever.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title From: A Farewell by Alfred Lord Tennyson

A young woman was standing at the edge of her island, body half turned to scamper back across the rocks to the main body of Far Harbor. Eyes constantly searching for the guardians she had heard of but something overriding her fear, a steel in her spine. Belle sighed and stood from her crouch in the half dead shrubs and hopped down on the path to approach the woman like a civilized human. No point in scaring her more. 

"Can I help you?" The woman startled but held her ground. Much better than the screaming flocks of children that liked to dare each other to visit her island. 

 She wrung her hands. "My child is missing, my daughter." She took a deep breath, forced it through her nose and met Belle's eyes. "We live in Far Harbor and no one will help me look for her. I was hoping you would." She gave a small smile. "Come away, oh human child."

Belle chuckled, remembering the dark-haired waif that she had pulled from the sea all those years ago. "So, your girl follows in your footsteps, Anna?"

"Some of her father's sense is in her. She went in to the island, not to the sea."

"The sea is easier is some ways."

Anna's eyes grew light with mischief. "For a sea witch who sings it to sleep maybe."

Belle shook her head. "Let's go find your girl." She whistled and Shaun popped up from his patch of brush. "You want to come with us or guard?"

He hopped down the bank. "You need the best tracker on the island for this."

"Ohoh." She chuckled, ruffling his hair. "Someone is getting cocky in his old age." He rolled his eyes and started off ahead of them. 

Anna reached out. "I can pay you."

Belle shook her head. "Just tell them you made a worthy offering." Anna stumbled on a rock and Belle grabbed her, holding her upright. "Keep the idiots off my island and we'll be even."

The little girl was fine when they found her, tired and hungry with scraped knees. She eyed Belle and Shaun with equal parts distrust and awe from her mama's arms. They escorted them to within sight of the gates and Anna turned back with a wave they returned. "Mama, she the mother of the mist?"

Anna stared in to her daughter's brown eyes a moment before nodding. "Yes. She helped me get you back, but you mustn't disturb her unless you truly need help. She is important to island, the Mother of the Mist. She protects Far Harbor with her boy." She moved the girl on to her hip. "One day she will take the Long Walk and the world will be a darker place. But not yet, my Belle."


	27. The Long Walk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who can face the sea and not inherit its loneliness?- Olin Ivory
> 
> Warning: This chapter contains suicide. I was at a loss as to how my immortal guardian was going to pass on from this world. But I came to realize reading over the rest of this work and A Song and A Dance that she would make that choice on her own. After a long life and a long time by the sea, Belle decides it's her time. The Long Walk isn't so long after all.

Belle had ceased to keep time, hadn’t left the island in what turned into endless moons. That was the only time she kept, moonrise was easy on her old eyes and let her watch the waves pull and flood the shore. Over and over, like so many other things. The sea was always empty now as she stared out from her chair. A vast loneliness that made her sorrowful, that made her feel understood.

Shaun had built the little garden patch she sat in before he left. Time had finally worn him down, his child’s body a determinant to his dreams, a clinging to a childhood long gone. DIMA had been able to help them, a synth that had suffered too much, that wanted it over had given his vessel over to Shaun. Her boy in a new body, it had taken time to adjust and time to sew longer pants. She sent him out to the Commonwealth with all he needed to survive and thrive. She sent him with a smile and a wave before he pulled his cap low over his eyes and took off in the boat.

He knew, she decided. Knew that she was old and tired, that her mind felt stretched and thin. She flexed her fingers against the old quilt, a young woman’s hands still. He had asked if she would come along, a courtesy when he truly wanted to be out on his own, to explore at will. But it was a courtesy she appreciated, and they had laughed when he suggested she pass as his sister. No, the Mother of the Mists was needed at Far Harbor she had told him and he had taken the lie, knowing it for what it was.

The Mother of the Mists had stopped rescuing people a long time ago. She didn’t know what Far Harbor thought of the ghost lurking on the island. The strange glow of candles, the voice that sighed along the waves on dark nights. Old songs that had lost their meaning and wordless mourning.

It had taken her years to find the plant, scouring the island for its purple bells and black drops. Another year to grow a successful, thriving plant. It had been easy enough to collect the leaves and berries, to pound them in her mortar, to add the hot water, and to strain it. She shook her head and picked up the dainty teacup. The dark tea warmed her, a comfort that sank deep into her bones as it passed her lips. She felt the cup fall from her fingers, a smile on her lips as the world went white.

Shaun was the first person she saw, the babe and the old man who had started the madness of her life all at once. He shimmered from one form and the next, always both, always separate, the same and different. She reached out, gently cupping his cheek. “Shaun?”

He smiled, her Shaun to was here just a little. “Mother.”

“Am I dreaming?”

“Why would you be?”

“Nightshade causes hallucinations.” She said softly.

He nodded before taking her hand and leading her forward. “It can but you are past its call now.”

“It worked.” She let free a sigh of relief. “I’m free.”

“And there are so many that have been waiting for you.” The mist cleared and her hands went to her face, covering her astonished gasp.

Claire smiled and waved; the woman she was before the war, happy and carefree. “Blue!” Claire’s other hand was clasped tight in Piper’s, her smile wide and her hat just a little askew. Mac and Duncan accompanied by two young women and looking smitten. Preston tipped his hat with a smile, the weary of the world gone from his shoulders.

She dropped to her knees as Dogmeat bound up to her, hugged him close, cherishing the feel of his soft fur against her cheek. She felt a hand on her shoulder. “My heart?” She shot to her feet and wrapped herself around him, tears beginning to stream down her face. “The Long Walk isn’t so long now.”

She laughed. “And I’m home, to stay at home is best.”


End file.
